SAP's Hana Speeds the Database Race

The German company's new software takes aim at the emerging market for pre-integrated hardware-software "appliances"

When SAP's co-chief executives, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, took over in February, they promised a nimbler company that would deliver compelling software faster. On Dec. 1, the German company will announce one of the first fruits of that effort, a new set of programs for analyzing sales and workforce data that can yield answers to complicated questions in seconds.

SAP (SAP) Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka, at a conference in Bangalore, India, will unveil software that can hold hundreds of millions of database records—say, 10 years' worth of sales data—in a computer's memory instead of retrieving them from disk drives. In some cases, the software has been able to analyze hundreds of billions of records within seconds, SAP said.

Read on ...

Understanding Marin County's $30 million ERP failure

The Board of Supervisors in California’s Marin County voted to stop an ongoing SAP project and seek a replacement solution, implicitly accepting that it wasted over $30 million on software and related implementation services from Deloitte Consulting.

The dramatic decision to replace SAP comes after relations between Marin and Deloitte Consulting, the implementation consultant on this project, deteriorated to the breaking point. Marin filed a lawsuit against Deloitte “seeking actual and compensatory damages of at least $30 million, along with unspecified punitive and, or exemplary damages and interest.” Deloitte has countersued Marin for approximately $550,000 in unpaid fees and late charges. SAP remains convinced that the software is working perfectly, and any issues in this implementation in no way reflect on SAP. So who's to blame?

The following article is a valuable lesson learned through another's failure. The lack of organizational preparation for a transformational event such as an ERP system implementation, as well as the lack of governance and the inability to manage the business changes required played key roles.

Read more about this learning opportunity here: Understanding Marin County's $30 million ERP failure

Top 10 Foods to Build Muscle

By now, most men understand the importance of protein in building muscle. When working out, the stress of weight lifting damages muscle fibers. This damage activates a special repair process that eventually forces individual muscle cells to grow. All of this growth requires loads of amino acids, the basic building blocks of life.

But the process of muscle growth requires more than just protein. Weight lifting also burns energy in the form of muscle glycogen, so your diet also needs to include a healthy serving of carbs to both replenish muscle glycogen stores and to boost insulin, a hormone that helps shuttle amino acids into the muscles.

So, which foods help you build muscular bulk?

Read on to find out: Top 10 Foods to Build Muscle

4 Steps to Becoming a Multitasking Master

In an effort to get more accomplished we can create more distractions and inefficiencies. One of the things that can destroy our productivity more than almost any other is multitasking. We've all heard the research that "proves" multitasking is counterproductive. While I can't totally disagree, I also can't totally avoid the fact that more often than not it's necessary or just a fact of life. The key point is that there is bad multitasking and there is good multitasking. The trick is to learn how to multitask the right way.

Read on...

The Expectation Gap

Who ultimately decides if a project or program is successful or a failure? The simple answer to this question is that people decide. People decide based on whether the project or program met their expectations or not.

Knowing this, it’s possible to understand why expectation management is important, and how a project could be perceived as a success even if it didn’t deliver all its initial scope but did hit its planned delivery date, because the delivery date was the primary driver of perceived success. You’ve maybe even experienced projects where the targeted delivery date was missed, but the complete scope was eventually delivered, and the project was thus considered a success. It’s even possible to have a project that delivers its full scope, on-time and on-budget, yet is considered a failure. Once reason why this might happen is because stakeholder expectations were set well above what the project was ever going to deliver at the outset, but then these expectations were never checked or realigned to the reality of the project.

Read on...

Avoid Karōshi and Thrive

Sudden death from overwork is a recognized phenomenon in Japan, where there is even a name for it — Karōshi. We have no comparable word in the English language., but it isn’t hard to understand the concept. From BlackBerrys and iPhones to laptops and iPads, it's now possible that every waking moment can be turned from down time into potential work time, so job stress follows us wherever we go. 


Each moment we’re not working can seem like a task not completed. With unemployment on the rise, people are less worried about advancing their careers and more worried than ever about losing their jobs. As companies cut back and seek to squeeze more productivity out of existing employees, or cull the bottom ten percent of workers to be replaced by someone with higher skills or a lower salary, many of us feel like we’re working at double-speed just to stay in place. This can cause a lot of stress.

Many companies made large strides in the past decade to finding a better work-life balance for their employees, believing that this will lead to higher productivity and loyalty. Some companies have limited overtime, offer telecommuting, or even require employees to leave the office by a certain time each day. However, few workers actually take advantage of these opportunities or end up taking work home. Certain careers, such as sales and consulting, are particularly difficult to find a healthy balance due to the infamous Road Warrior lifestyle if airports, hotels, and restaurants on a regular basis.


So, how does one avoid Karōshi and actually thrive in such a stressful environment? While it's easier said than done, one key strategy is to use stress to your advantage. Distress is the most commonly-referred to type of stress, having negative implications, whereas eustress is a positive form of stress, usually related to desirable events in a person's life. Examples of eustressful situations are meeting or engaging in a challenge, coming in first place in a race, getting a promotion, watching a suspense or horror movie, riding a roller coaster, buying a new car, falling in love, and marriage. The key is to take a parallax view of key work situations and turn them into a eustressful challenge instead of a distressful event. 


Both distress and eustress can be equally taxing on the body, and are cumulative in nature, depending on a person's way of adapting to the change that has caused it. The body itself cannot physically discern between distress or eustress. In addition to eustress, routine exercise will cause the release of  endorphins. Produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalmus, endorphins  provide a sense of well being and control, and allow one to persist with an activity for an extended time. It is also crucial to maintain a well balanced diet, limit alcohol consumption, get an adequate amount of sleep each night, and enjoy some down time occasionally in order to maintain good health and well being during stressful times.

References: 

WSJ Online: Conversing About Karoshi: Are We Working Ourselves to Death?

Wikipedia: Karōshi, Eustress, Endorphin

Eric Giler demos wireless electricity

Wireless Electricity. Think about it. No, really - think about it. I used to think that it would be cool to not have to plug in my laptop, then though, gee that's what the battery is for. Well, you still have to charge the thing. That's where WiTricity comes in. No wires. Use or recharge just by having a device in range of the WiTricity device. But this is even bigger than that. There are an unlimited number of applications for this technology such as recharging everything from electric vehicles to pacemakers. To really grasp the concept you have to watch the video here: Eric Giler demos wireless electricity | Video on TED.com

Google Instant Streaming Search Results Eliminate the Search Button

As if Google Search wasn't already the most useful thing ever invented. Now, with Google Instant you can start seeing search results before you even finish typing in your search terms.



How, you ask, does Google Instant do this? ESP perhaps? No, it's a form of predictive auto-completion based on what you type, and it also eliminates the search button. Read on for more details (and I know you will...).

Live: Google Instant Streaming Search Results Eliminate the Search Button

Facebook meets SAP

Facebook is the undisputed number one social networking site. Now, Facebook users can analyze their profile with the free Friend Network Optimizer. But what exactly can the app do?


Facebook now has more than 500 million registered users, so it’s no wonder that a large number of apps are available for the site. Virtual pets can be adopted, farms can be run, and other social networks – such as Twitter – can be integrated. Another app – the Friend Network Optimizer from SAP – provides information about your network of friends and your own user behavior. You find out how active you and your contacts on Facebook are compared with the Facebook community in general.


To do this, the app works in a similar way to SAP Crystal Presentation Design, which is part of SAP Crystal solutions for business intelligence and can be downloaded free of charge from SAP.info until the end of the year. As the dashboard generator, its task is to extract information from raw data and to visualize it so that it looks good and is easy to understand.

The Friend Network Optimizer works in a similar way by gathering profile information through a Facebook interface and presenting it to users in the style of SAP Crystal Presentation Design. To become familiar with business intelligence software away from the office, you just need to integrate the app into your own Facebook profile.

Read on to see examples and download the app... Facebook meets SAP

The Hackett Group Announces Second Quarter Results

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT - News), a global strategic advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, today announced its financial results for the second quarter, which ended July 2, 2010.

-Q2 revenue of $53.7 million exceeds guidance with 15% sequential quarterly growth and 55% year over year growth

-Pro forma EPS of $0.08 at high end of guidance

• -Board approves additional $5.0 million for Stock Repurchase Program

“We had an outstanding quarter with improved performance across all service groups,” stated Ted A. Fernandez, Chairman & CEO of The Hackett Group, Inc. “We feel that our offerings are well-aligned with the current economic recovery which requires organizations to stay highly focused on market conditions and strong operational execution.”

The Hackett Group Announces Second Quarter Results - Yahoo! Finance

SAP To Fight Oracle Damages Claim

Enterprise software vendor SAP has announced that it will defend its interests from a damage claim filed by Oracle.

Oracle claims that it should be paid "billions and billions" of dollars in damages for copyright infringement initiated by the SAP-owned TomorrowNow software servicing company.

SAP, instead, believes that Oracle is entitled to damages worth "tens of millions" of dollars.

SAP To Fight Oracle Damages Claim - ITProPortal.com

SAP's Sybase Unit Partners with HP on BI | CTO Edge

As part of an effort to make it easier for IT organizations to deploy Sybase analytics software on top of HP servers, SAP and HP today rolled out a reference architecture that customers can follow in order to optimize the performance of Sybase’s IQ software.

SAP's Sybase Unit Partners with HP on BI | CTO Edge

Ship Buried in 18th Century Unearthed at WTC Site

NEW YORK -- Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32-foot-long ship hull that apparently was used in the 18th century as part of the fill that extended lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.

t's hoped the artifact can be retrieved by the end of the day on Thursday, said archaeologist Molly McDonald. A boat specialist was going to the site to take a look at it.

For more on this story, please visit: FOXNews.com - Ship Buried in 18th Century Unearthed at WTC Site

Concept of the Week - Willingness vs. Ability

Recently I've had some issues with someone who is very able, but unwilling to accept certain responsibilities. This reminded me of another concept learned long ago call the Willingness vs. Ability matrix. Traditionally we see high achievers, and settle for something less, while struggling to get the to move up or over into the desired upper right hand quadrant. This also made me realize that sometimes it's better to have someone will high willingness and low ability, than someone with high ability and low willingness.

Word of the Week - Conatus

Conatus (Latin for effort; endeavor; impulse, inclination, tendency; undertaking; striving) is a term used in early philosophies of psychology and metaphysics to refer to an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself.^[1] This "thing" may be mind, matter or a combination of both. Over the millennia, many different definitions and treatments have been formulated by philosophers. Seventeenth-century philosophers René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz, and their Empiricist contemporary Thomas Hobbes made important contributions.^[2] The conatus may refer to the instinctive "will to live" of living organisms or to various metaphysical theories of motion and inertia.^[3] Often the concept is associated with God's will in a pantheist view of Nature.^[2][4] The concept may be broken up into separate definitions for the mind and body and split when discussing centrifugal force and inertia.^[5] 


In my case I was facing several business decisions where I was failing to find a conatus or impetus for the client (or my management) to endeavor to move from current state to an improved future state (i.e. enhance itself). Creating the inertia or momentum to move from present state in business is, at times, is a conundrum.

Answerthink's Industrial Machinery and Components Solution Receives SAP Qualification | The Hackett Group

MIAMI, June 8, 2010 - Answerthink, a division of The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) and a premier developer, provider, and supporter of SAP® solutions, today announced that its EzIMC™ offering for the industrial machinery and components industry is now a qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solution. The solution includes functionality specifically for growing and mid-market companies within this industry.

Answerthink's Industrial Machinery and Components Solution Receives SAP Qualification | The Hackett Group

The 4-Hour Workweek: Is it really possible?

I'm halfway through listening to the audio book version of The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris. While many of his strategies for reducing non-productive (i.e. non-profitable) time and increasing leisure time and achieving goals sound great, do they really work? Well, he's done it himself, though not without challenges. I don't know that I can do them all, but I will be putting several of his strategies into practice and reporting back here whether they worked for me (e.g. blogging from Tahiti) or not (e.g. get fired). This should be interesting.

Word of the week - Spectrum

A spectrum (plural spectra or spectrums) is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. In my case I was considering how to understand the relationship between where a new employee fell within a 3D spectrum of people (x) , process (y) , and technology (z) skills based on where we expected him to be and were he was observed in order to develop an action plan to close any expectation gaps.

The Hackett Group (HCKT) Crossed Above 50-Day Moving Average

Shares of The Hackett Group (HCKT) were up more than 20% as the company posted solid first quarter results.

The Hackett Group (HCKT) Crossed Above 50-Day Moving Average

IBM Turns to Software as It Reboots

International Business Machines Corp. is trying to transform itself again, as Chief ExecutiveSamuel J. Palmisano races to stay ahead of the technology industry's fast-changing profit curve.

The top priority this time for Big Blue—which famously dumped its personal computer business in 2004 to focus on consulting and services—is software. Mr. Palmisano wants that high-margin business to account for about half of the company's pretax profit by 2015, up from just over a third in 2003.

IBM Turns to Software as It Reboots - WSJ.com

SAP Buys Sybase for $5.8 Billion

SAP AG said it would pay $5.8 billion to buy fellow software maker Sybase Inc., a move that would give the German giant key technology in its battle against archrival Oracle Corp. in the business-software market.

SAP Buys Sybase for $5.8 Billion - WSJ.com

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

I listened to this book on CD a couple of years ago and have found its concepts to be very consistent with how decisions need to be made in a fast pasted project environment. I'm currently trying to adapt this approach to a project in an organization where a primary risk to the project being successful is the organizations inability to make and stick to decisions. I'm not sure yet how to solve the "stick-to-it-ness" (is that a word?), but hope to improve the speed decision making.

Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, react to a new idea, or just make decisions faster.

Amazon.com: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (9780316172325): Malcolm Gladwell: Books

HCKT potential upside tops 50%

"Hackett Group (NASDAQ:HCKT) has a potential upside of 50.5% based on a current price of $2.88 and an average consensus analyst price target of $4.33."

Edgewater Technology is Among the Companies With the Highest Upside Potential in the IT Consulting & Other Services Industry (EDGW, HCKT, CPBY, TIER, LIOX) | Comtex SmarTrend:

Ex-SAP CEO resurfaces at cloud SCM vendor GT Nexus

Former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker has been appointed to the board of GT Nexus, maker of on-demand SCM (supply chain management) software, roughly two months after his departure from the ERP (enterprise resource planning) giant.

Ex-SAP CEO resurfaces at cloud SCM vendor - BusinessWeek

U.S. Government To Save Billions By Cutting Wasteful Senator Program | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

WASHINGTON—In an effort to reduce wasteful spending and eliminate non-vital federal services, the U.S. government announced plans this week to cut its long-standing senator program, a move it says will help save more than $300 billion each year. U.S. Government To Save Billions By Cutting Wasteful Senator Program | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

BBC News - Today - Lovelock: 'We can't save the planet'

Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, has said it is too late to try and save the planet.

The man who achieved global fame for his theory that the whole earth is a single organism now believes that we can only hope that the earth will take care of itself in the face of completely unpredictable climate change.

BBC News - Today - Lovelock: 'We can't save the planet'

NASA Data Worse Than Climate-Gate Data, Space Agency Admits as is begins probe of Toyota acceleration problem

NASA was able to put a man on the moon in the 1960's, but the space agency is looking for something to do. With only four remaining space shuttle mission, recently scrapped plans for returning to the moon, and years from a space shuttle replacement, was recently tasked with probing the Toyota acceleration problem. Why does this make no sense? Why is the administration using one federal agency (NASA) to investigate the competitor of a government run business entity (GM)? To make things more interesting, by its own admission, NASA's temperature records are in even worse shape than the besmirched Climate-gate data. Will there be any credibility to their findings? Is NASA getting into the auto industry? Only time will tell...

FOXNews.com - NASA Data Worse Than Climate-Gate Data, Space Agency Admits

Best Free Browser Game: Supremacy 1914

If you like grand scale war games, but want something with a quick learning curve and not too heavy on micromanagement, try Supremacy 1914. It's like a real-time game of Risk, with up to 30 online players from around the globe, and you get to control the military, economy, diplomacy, etc. And you can't beat the price...

Free online games on Supremacy 1914, voted best free browsergame amongst multiplayer games, strategy games, addicting games and risk online free games

Qantas Pilot Allowed to Fly Despite Urges to Crash Jets

A Qantas pilot suffering from a mental illness was allowed to keep flying for three years despite complaining of his urges to crash his planes.

FOXNews.com - Qantas Pilot Allowed to Fly Despite Urges to Crash Jets

Healthcare Crisis vs. Culture Crisis

Is the issue healthcare reform or lifestyle reform? Read this Letter to the Editor from a MD in MS and decide for yourself where the crisis lies.

snopes.com: Dr. Starner Jones

How to filter for unique values or remove duplicate values in MS-Excel

Have a large list of data with certain fields containing duplicate records (e.g. "order number" or "date") and you want to only see the unique records? Use this: Filter for unique values or remove duplicate values - Excel - Microsoft Office Online

Global Warming in Last 15 Years Insignificant, U.K.'s Top Climate Scientist Admits

Warming or cooling? What does the data say? Where did the data go? You decide.
FOXNews.com - Global Warming in Last 15 Years Insignificant, U.K.'s Top Climate Scientist Admits

How to convert columns to rows, or rows to columns in MS-Excel

Have you ever had a list or data set in Excel that was in columns and but you really wanted to see it listed in rows? I usually run into this once every 3-5 years. Thankfully Google is now here to save the day when you can't remember how you did it last time. If you have MS-Office 2003 or newer you can copy your set of data (in rows or columns), move to a blank cell and click paste->special and select the transpose button and you're done. How did we ever get things done before Google?

My Travels

Just updated my travel map on Trip Advisor and thought I'd share...

1. Prague, Czech Republic
2. Venice, Italy
3. Cologne, Germany
4. Rome, Italy
5. Honolulu, HI, USA
6. Heidelberg, Germany
7. Siena, Italy
8. Toledo, Spain
9. Mackinac Island, MI, USA
10. Chinchon, Spain

• Create your own travel map or travel blog
• Deals on cheap airfare at TripAdvisor

Currently Reading...

So, this post started out as a "what am I reading" topic. Funny things happen on the way to a posting. At first I thought I'd post a list of favorite books. Then I thought about listing what I'm currently reading. Well, in addition to being in various stages of reading a couple of books I'm also listening to a book on CD (ripped to my MP3 player). Finally, capitalist as I am, I thought I'd shamelessly plug as many items as possible that I thought you'd enjoy, too. 


I'm currently reading Atlas Shrugged, which I became interested in while watching an episode of Mad Men (Season 1) last fall. I have heard of Atlas Shrugged many times over the years, but never got around to reading it, and was vaguely aware of the premise. Then I saw Glenn Beck wearing a "Reardon Metals" t-shirt in a video on his website and one thing lead to another and I proceeded to reserve a copy at the local library. I also happen to be reading Arguing With Idiots at home. A very easy ready when you have 5-10 minutes at a time...


Anyway, Atlas Shrugged is not a quick read (~1200p). I'm travelling again, so I picked up the pace a few weeks ago by reading while on the road. I've been playing the renew-renew-hold-repeat game since I haven't been getting through this very quickly. If you're not familiar with the aforementioned game, it's where I check out items on my library card, renew them as many times as allowed, then place a hold on the same item with my daughters library card, then the day after returning the item it is ready for pick up on her card. I've had to do this several times with the Young Adventures of Indiana Jones, as it takes several weeks to get through an entire season with the kids. In one of my stops at the library I picked up Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army on MP3.


So there you are. I wonder what I'll be reading/watching/listening to on my trip to Cancun next month?

First Post

Having considered blogging for years, Darron finally did.