My Diigo Bookmarks 07/31/2008
July 31, 2008
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The construction industry. By Simon Sweetman - 24 Jul 2008
This UK perspective on the construction industry makes interesting reading when taken alongside the US $40 billion payroll tax hole
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Businesses deliberately cheating U.S. out of $40 billion in payroll taxes - Financial Week
What surprises me is that the figure isn’t higher.
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FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Do investors have a right to know about a CEO’s illness?
The gruesome reality of being in the public gaze
Proctologist or dental surgeon?
July 30, 2008
An interesting Twitter conversation broke out earlier today when the effervescent open source hand waver aka James Governor drew a comparison between his firm Redmonk and Gartner. I argued the comparison is suprious because they do different things - better to think about proctologists and dental surgeons. He replied with chiropracter and hospital GP.
I prefer my analogy because on reflection, proctology reminds me of the anally retentive practitioner who thinks that all they know is a big secret that can’t be shared. The dental surgeon on the other hand deals with open mouths akin to open source.
The question for practitioners thinking of entering the AccountancyAge Awards for best professional firms is simple: do you share? I’m not one of the judges but for ME, that is a prime requirement for excellence in service.
PS - while this is not directly related to the original Tweet discussion, I believe the overall thought piece works.
PPS - there is no disrespect to Gartner in this. Just a different view of the world.
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Where to next for HMRC’s IT plans?
July 30, 2008
John Stokdyk’s excellent analysis of HMRC’s IT woes should be required reading for anyone attempting to either work with HMRC’s electronic ‘facilities’ or those wondering how and why large scale IT projects are so prone to failure. I was aprticualrly drawn to one of John’s last conclusions:
But the auditor has made a fundamental mistake in approaching the project as an isolated exercise. Taken at face value, the NAO report makes little allowance for the risks posed to the transformation programme by the stresses and strains already facing the department’s current IT systems and change managers.
That resonates strongly with a conversation I had with an HMRC representative who was working on an SAP implementation. Too often it seems, HMRC applies penny pinching tactics to its staff while giving consultants almost free rein. While there is little doubt that working for government under consulting arrangements is far from easy, the fact staff are encouraged NOT to spend money - even when that includes a 4 hour round trip to make meetings and then expecting people to sit in meetings for 7 hours solid - is applying pressure in the wrong place.
As I read the situation, HMRC IT staff are generally demoralized. They don’t see the work they do as being valued and are constantly under the cost cosh. Change managment has always been an art form that is frequently mis-managed. Constantly shoving petty cash vouchers under staff noses is exactly the wrong thing to do.
The big question must now be how the situation can be salvaged. While HMRC claims the systems will provide larger savings, those claims are viewed with considerable scepticism. Of course software needs to be tested and work but that can always be fixed. Of course there needs to be rationalization. That can be fixed too. But what you can’t fix so easily is a workforce under considerable pressure without applying resources to alleviate the strains to which John refers. At the end of the day we’re talking about people who have to operate these systems. In my experience, people respond well to the right kind of pressure but it’s another matter when they’re under constant strain.
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My Diigo Bookmarks
July 30, 2008
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HMRC Is Shite: IT Is Not Our Business - PAYE Cock Up
Ken taking the pish - in his own inimitable style
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Seth’s Blog: Are you in the tribe?
I’m wondering whether Seth has jumped the shark with this stunt
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Businesses deliberately cheating U.S. out of $40 billion in payroll taxes - Financial Week
What surprises me is that the figure isn’t higher.
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FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Do investors have a right to know about a CEO’s illness?
The gruesome reality of being in the public gaze
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Twelve best practices for online customer communities | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com
social architecture - an interesting concept. Lots of good tips but it’s still early.
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Who Is Your Information Filter? « I’m Not Actually a Geek
Interesting concept but not one with which I wholly concur
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Congratulations to the OpenWorld Session Winners | Oracle AppsLab
Now this is a bit different - driven by community
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SAP: Oracle Software Support from TomorrowNow to End - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
This is ot going away. The industry is in for a torrid time
