Continuing the tour around the quadrants, we come to the external-facing, core product-related activities that a business conducts. This is the area in which there has probably been the greatest change in the past decade as a result of digital technologies - first with the Web, and latterly with smartphones, tablets and the world of … Continue reading Digital Architecture: Product services
Category: Technology
One of the things that I was told in my two years of working in the software supplier world was that "there are only two sorts of people; those who make products and those who sell products". As on the day I heard it, I still believe that there is a one word, Anglo-Saxon retort … Continue reading Digital architecture: Production services
There is a famous quote attributed to the American retailer John Wanamaker - "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." It to a great extent sums up the challenge that faces the modern advertising and marketing industry - in a clamour for demonstrable, linked return … Continue reading Return on no investment
In my last post I introduce a simple 2x2 matrix that can help to classify services within an organisation to help make sense of how digital technologies impact and can be managed effectively. We'll now look at each of the four quadrants in turn, starting with the Support services. These internal business functions, processes, departments … Continue reading Digital Architecture: Support Services
The two-by-two matrix is the stock-in-trade of the management consulting industry. There's a reason for that - they are generally pretty useful, and help to put a bit of classification onto things that helps conversations about what to do next. As mentioned in my previous post, there are a number of technology architecture frameworks that … Continue reading A framework for Digital Architecture
In Britain in 1865, the legislative response to the increasing introduction of self-propelled vehicles on our roads was the Locomotive Act (sometimes known as the Red Flag Act). Amongst a number of provisions, it stipulated that self-propelled vehicles needed to be proceeded with a man walking 60 yards ahead carrying a red flag to warn … Continue reading The red flag man
Update - November 2015 - I've recently revised the Digital Architecture model Just before the Christmas break I wrote an article that explained why I think we are entering a new phase for technology where everyone needs to be able to understand something of the architecture of technology within the businesses they operate to make … Continue reading Becoming a digital architect
Every day it seems I can barely move in the world of the Internet without another big blurb about how software and developers are changing the world. Can you humour me for a moment so that we can lance that particular boil? For every Facebook or Twitter or whatever other clever doo-dad, there's a BBC … Continue reading We are all architects now
Email marketing is a much disparaged art form, and yet one that companies still put an awful lot of effort into (and one that lots of other companies still make an awful lot of money from by providing services). Last week, Google made an announcement about how images would be handled that meant that … Continue reading GMail images – what’s the email marketing impact?
There appears to be mounting press coverage at the moment about the causes and consequences of Microsoft being unable to announce the name of Steve Ballmer's successor as the next Redmond CEO. Much of that coverage appears to be about the culpability of the company's board in this, as their main job is succession planning … Continue reading It’s not played on paper
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