Operations Digital Transformation Playbook

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Digital Transformation is the buzz word of the day.  Whether TMF is saying it or Lightreading is reporting it, CIOs are doing it.    Here is an example roadmap for transforming operations for the business’s digital transformation.    This 4-step process leverages much of what the industry has already said. I have interweaved some color and advice .   I hope you find it useful and comment below.

Acceptance for Digital Transformation

Step 1: Acceptance

First, your organization needs to buy into the fact that something has to change.     Buy-in for digital transformation is the key to success.  While 100% agreement is not possible, getting an overwhelming majority will reduce timelines.   Forming a committee with regular cadence calls can assist on collection of use cases. As a sound board, they can be the voice of the organization. They will also provide you cover during the transformation process.
 
Here is some advice to help people get in the boat. Some will doubt the need for change. To those doubters, I would pose the following questions:
  • What % of the time does operations spend on firefighting?
  • What does your customers say about the quality of the services you provide?
  • How many compromises does your team make to “get the job done”?
  • Does 25% YOY staff turnover frighten you?

These questions are the canaries in the coal mine for impacting digital transformation.    If you cannot focus on improvement, growth, and resiliency – the organization is in danger.    When the business is changing to a more agile footprint, operations gets left behind — or even worse, becomes the roadblock.

 

Selection for Digital Transformation

Step 2: Selection

Change scares people and organizations and digital transformation can get scary.   When it comes to selection, it must be a sober, deliberate decision.   RFIs are a common method for initiating change.    The trouble is the net you cast.    If you only send the RFI to your pre-existing vendors, you will get lots of the same.
 
I recommend that you start with a google search on “Operations transformation”, then “IT transformation”.     The results should net you some NEPs/DEPs (EMC, Huawei) and Global SI players (Accenture, Deloitte).   If you are a fortune 500, they will be very kind to you and expect big money.    If you have a relationship with these guys, I recommend calling upon them and seeing the “big pitch”.    Its great for context and helps to understand the commitment involved in transformation.
 
The next step would be to call some analysts.   I have had great experiences with Analysys Mason, Appledore Research, and Gartner.    They can tell you what other customers have done.    Attend some webinars and trade events can help get you connected to the trend setters.    This will help you round out the group you want to invite into the RFI process.
 
With the RFI executed, you will want to review the material and cut down to 5 or less parties.    Make sure you have a global SI, a NEP/DEP, and some trend setters in the bunch.    Ask for presentations and documentation of best practices.   Get as much information as possible, creating quality requirements is key.
 
Within the transformation workgroup, create a top 10/25 list from each member of key issues.   Apply your use cases and develop a list of requirements (<100 items). Add to it a ratings system to keep it fair, to the point.   If you value verification of technical compliance (ie. support for Cisco IOS Y/N, etc), add another sheet.   Another tip; you can always demand entries to combine their offerings. This firms up and consolidates your options.   Use this list with your procurement team to create the RFP. Give at least 2 weeks to respond, and no more than 4 weeks.    Stick to your schedule and grade the entries responses.
 
Work within the workgroup to kill and combine entries until you get to at least 2 — the fewer the better. Based upon grading, provide a list to the down-selected parties of how they can improve their response. Giving parties the opportunity to focus and improve, will allow for better options. Schedule meetings with no more than 7 day’s notice for their presentation and response.    After all meetings are complete, revise the grading and make a selection with procurement.    Notify all parties and negotiate a contract.   I recommend all contracts as part of transformation be longer term, you will want a partner for at least 3 years.    I also recommend agreement of SLAs and penalties of failed/delayed delivery.

 

Execution for Digital Transformation

Step 3: Execution

After making the selection, now the hard work starts – addressing digital transformation.    Implementation should be a core concern during the selection process.   Some transformation projects are short-term (less than 6 months), longer term leverages milestones.    Phasing allows transformation projects to achieve quick wins and setup long-term success.   When building the business case, phasing allows prioritization of key objectives.   I always recommend to show significant value within a quarter, and every quarter after.   Regular improvement needs to be visible, or you will need significant executive sponsorship.    Phasing will help drive the value and keep on task.
 
Selection of a project mantra defines how that project will run.   Agile is very popular in IT projects.   A DevOps approach allows your transformation project to become evergreen.   For long-term projects where you need extreme flexibility, there is no better technique.    For short-term, fixed scope projects waterfall is more than satisfactory.
 
When executing the vision, setting phased milestones provides the director. Quarterly scheduled demonstrations keeps the faith. With consistent, planned deliveries will confirm healthy project management.   When it comes to execution focus, communication and delivery success should be the first priority.    Its always best to remember, if you have an unhealthy project — you will have poor deliverables.

 

RIO Renewal for Digital Transformation

Step 4: ROI & Renewal

Once the project has achieved it main objectives the question becomes “Now What?”.    In every sense of the word, there is an “end-state” with regards to transformation.   Once you get there, you will experience the fact that the goal posts moved on you.   This is another reason Agile methodologies are popular.

Meet with your workgroup and steering committee, does it make sense to continue.   One key issue my customers have seen, is that transformation can lead to change for only change’s sake.   There must be clear needs to continue.   You can always reduce team cadence and let the needs of the business denote the tempo.
 
In summation, executing a digital transformation is a heavy commitment.   The facts are that the change required is necessary to address industry climate.    Nobody wants to buy a T1 anymore and that is a good thing!    The good news is that meeting the needs of business is possible and profitable. Good luck transforming!

Key lessons learned for Digital Transformation:

  • Collaboration = Commitment = Success – if you communicate effectively
  • Select the best process and tools for your team.     Do not fall into the conformity for its sake.
  • Set achievable regularly delivered goals.   Show consistently increasing value to the business.
  • Focus on the present, but regularly plan for the future – and always communicate

 

Shawn Ennis

About the Author

Serial entrepreneur and operations subject matter expert who likes to help customers and partners achieve solutions that solve critical problems.   Experience in traditional telecom, ITIL enterprise, global manage service providers, and datacenter hosting providers.   Expertise in optical DWDM, MPLS networks, MEF Ethernet, COTS applications, custom applications, SDDC virtualized, and SDN/NFV virtualized infrastructure.  Based out of Dallas, Texas US area and currently working for one of his founded companies – Monolith Software.

Best Practices Guide for Application Monitoring

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Don’t Fear the App

Digital service providers are being driven by customers into the world of applications. Gone are the days that simple internet access is all you have to provide. The more complex the service, the more value it is to the customer. As SMB customers are embracing managed services, service providers are managing applications. While traditional network services are well defined, most applications are disparate and obtuse. Many of the customers I talk to see a real challenge in application monitoring.
 
Applications requires the same, if not more, care and feeding that any other tech.  Defining services is easier, but components are vast and complex.  Application discovery is still a new concept and is not yet 100%.  Knowing the availability, performance, and capacity of an application is vital information. Having the heuristics, audit, and log information to troubleshoot allows for quicker resolutions.  Performing end-to-end distributed active testing allows for basic verification. Passive activity scanning can ensure you know problems as soon as end-customers do.  Mission critical apps need comprehensive monitoring and management. To the tune of the same cost and value of that application deployed.
 
Applications can be very difficult to manage due to their inherent uniqueness. These custom digital services come in all forms and fashions. From printing queue services to real-time stock trading platforms. This series of blog articles to provide insight on how to plan for monitoring custom applications. Interested providers will be able to leverage these concepts for their own environment.
 

Discover the Application

First part of any new application monitoring is to determine what consists of the application.   Application discovery has two common flaws. First is over-discovery, or creating so much detail association is complex and useless. Or the problem is under-discovery, in which you are missing key associations and thus useless.   Discovery is like all other technology, it requires human guidance and oversight — do not blindly depend upon it.
 

Website Monitoring

For our working example, I will use a custom application using a traditional 3-tier architecture stack. We first start with the presentation layer. Its best to start by listing out what can go wrong. Network access might be down. Server failure is a possibility. The web server process (httpd) might no longer be running. Are the network storage directories mounted? Once you have your list, create your dashboard. Once you have your dashboard, link the necessary data to it (syslogs, traps, ping alarms). With a finished dashboard, you can automate it with policy. Create an alert that indicates an application error exists and points to the cause. If your assurance tool cannot perform these features, find one that does the job.
 

Database Monitoring

Now repeat the same for data layer. Which database do you have? MySQL provides rich monitoring plugins. What are the standard database KPIs? Google provides plenty of opportunity to leverage 3rd party lessons learned. What else is important with a database? Backup and redundancy are key. Are those working? Repeat the dashboard driven monitoring techniques from above. The result is 2/3rds of your custom application monitored.
 

The hard part…

The most difficult layer to deal with is the application layer. Here there are no rules. The best case is talking to the developers. Get them to explain and define the known KPIs and failure points. Worse case, you can break down the logs, processes, and ports in use to check for basic things. Do not discount basic monitoring such as this, the more your know the easier to troubleshoot. Run the dashboards you have as reports, get them into the inbox of the application team daily. This will assure the feedback you need to refine your monitoring policies.
 

Last advice…

– Be bold – Don’t be afraid of monitoring
– Communicate – Let the team see the results, if the data is wrong fix it
– If nobody cares about the data, you don’t have to keep it and don’t alert on it
– Alerts and notifications are only useful if they are rare and desired
 
My last point would be if you are a SMB, your managed service provider should be able to perform custom application monitoring. If the can’t, have them call me…

Intelligent Approach to Smart Cities

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Smarter Smart Cities

At the Smart City Dublin forum, the subject was how municipalities can save money and better enable citizens.   These opportunities are not driven by cities, but by service providers offering new services.    Cities have assets, like right-of-ways.    They have advancing needs, like tourism empowering free wifi.  Governments have challenges, like reducing budgets and stodgy policies.  While other providers may shy away, many see these challenges as possible revenue.

Simple Concept

There are plenty of opportunities for engagement. Right aways (lamp posts) are available. Engaging vendors to install a wifi network which generate advertising revenue.   Smart cities can share in the ad-based profits. The service also provides new tourist engaging services to grow the local community.   This enables a portal to show off the local digital economy.   Multi-tenant access enables other services. Shared utilities like garbage and power can alert citizens in real-time. Digital services can enrich the peoples knowledge and grow the cities automation potential.   The bottomline is reduction of cost and growth of engagement.

Where does service assurance come in?

The digital world is a unifying force.    Providing a single pane of glass is common sense, but unfortunately not common place.   Once deployed, the quality of city’s services define their brand.   The analog and digital services will need assurance.  Proactive engagement is no longer a nice-to-have, its expected.   A proactive portal, empowered by service assurance, enables the smart city revolution.
 
Service providers, government, and equipment manufactures align with new services (ie Dublin).   The question is how will service providers assure the quality and engage the populace in real-time?

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Predicting the IoT World

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What are we going to do in the IoT world?

My typical response to service providers is, “well, that was last week…”    All kidding aside, we live in the connected generation.   Network access is the new oxygen.   The price to be paid is complexity and scale.   A good reference for what IoT use cases exist is this bemyapp article about Ten B2B use cases for IoT.

Common Threads

Its best to categorize them into three buckets.    Environmental monitoring of smart meters to reduce human interaction requirements.   Tracking logistics through RFID is another common trend with IoT communities.   The most common is client monitoring.    With mobility, handset tracking and trending is common in CEM.   When considering an access network its monitoring the cable modems for millions of customers.  Which ever category your use case may be, the challenges will be similar.    How do you deal with the fact that your network becomes tens of millions of small devices instead of thousands of regular sized devices?   How do you handle that fact that billions of pieces of data need to be processed, but only a fraction would be immediately useful?   How can you break down the network to human understandable segmentations?

The solution is simple

With a single source of truth, you can see the forest through the trees.   While the “things” in IoT are important, how they relay information and perform their work are equally important.    Monitoring holistic allows better understanding of the IoT environment – single point solutions will not address IoT.  Normalizing data enables for higher scale, while maintaining the high reliability.

How to accelerate

Now that the network has been unified into a single source of truth, operations can start simplification of their workload.    First step, become service oriented.   Performance, fault, and topology is too much data – its the services you must rely upon.   How are the doing, what are the problems, how to fix them, and where you need to augment your network.    Next up, correlate everything – you need to look at the 1% of the 1% of the 1% to be successful.  KQIs are necessary, because the trees in the forest are antidotal information – the AFFECT.   Seeing the forest (as the KQI) allows you to become proactive and move quicker, be more decisive because you understand the trends and what is normal.  Its time to stop let the network manage you, and start managing your network.

End Goal is Automation

After unifying your view and simplifying your approach, its time to automate.    The whole point of IoT is massive scale and automation, but if your SA solution cannot integrate openly with the orchestration solution, how will you ever automate resolution & maintenance?   We all must realize, human-based lifecycle management is not possible at IoT scale.   Its time to match the value of your network with the value of managing it.

Assuring quality real-time services

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Traveling from trade shows

Coming back from a trade show I took my Uber back to the airport, oddly enough I experience the value of real-time services.   As most, I leverage the Uber ride-share service.   My reasons are as others: connivence, price, quality, etc.   In the past, I have typically taken taxis — which are twice the cost.

As we are driving, the drivers phone beeped.   It told him that there was an accident up ahead and we needed to divert.  Interestingly, my phone beeped as he said this and I got the same message showing a red line up ahead.   The driver stated this was one of the reasons he switched to Uber, being a long time tax cab driver.   Because other Uber drivers are constantly, autonomously reporting traffic (way more than cab drivers do) he spends more time driving and less time in traffic.   He drives more customers and makes considerably more money.   The customers are happier, online bill pay provide less hassle – he drives, that is all he worries about.    The cost of Uber?   For him nothing, the passengers do that.   He drives and gets paid.   And is nice – offered me a paper (quaint) and free bottle of water before boarding.

The moral of the story…

Uber based in California, 6,000 miles and 9 hours time difference away.   Using AWS hosting, it allows real-time automatic cross matching of traffic to make lives a little easier a world away.   The mini to the macro at work here.   This 60+ year old driver, driving all his life, reaps the benefit.   I pay an extra 2e, 40% reduction in rates, smoother ride in a new car, and nicer driver — that is value for the customer.    What makes this miracle possible?   Realtime digital services.    Uber and others like them are winning the battle by pushing realtime digital services using LTE; competing against taxi cabs with CB radios.    As the newspaper industry realized already, the taxi cab industry will soon become… quaint…

My question to you?  What is your realtime service?   What does it mean to your business?  How do you assure it to continue to be realtime?

Drop me a message @Shawn_Ennis, I would love to talk about your real-time services.

PS.   Thanks T-Mobile for included international roaming.   Uber would not have been possible without you…

 

 

Who am I?

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Welcome to my new blog.

As the founder of multiple service assurance companies, I will be posting relevant information about service assurance as well as shared insight into the world of operations, product management, and general service provider knowledge.

I have over 20 years of experience in the technology arena and have spent my career utilizing management software to run Network Operations Centers as well as implementing management software solutions for a significant number of the largest service providers and enterprise companies in the United States. I’ve also developed management software solutions to meet the needs of client organizations.

My past…

After graduating from Auburn University with a Computer Engineering / Software Engineering degree, I went to work for a service provider in Atlanta called ITC Deltacom.  There is where I was responsible for their NOC Operations as a Technical Specialist. I spent a significant portion of this time mastering the world of SONET and DWDM.  I also was involved in creating an advanced enterprise management solutions. Then I was recruited to work for one of the leading consulting companies in the United States – Windward Consulting Group – where I was responsible for delivering solutions from Micromuse, InfoVista, Riversoft, Smarts, Nortel, as well as custom solutions.   Customers included the industry’s leading and emerging service providers and enterprise accounts.

In 2003, I left Windward to found Monolith Technology Services (MTS) – a consulting services company. In 2005, I founded Monolith Software which delivers cost effective and highly scalable management solutions to organizations.   The goal of my adventures was in seeking to better manage their technology infrastructures through unified service assurance.

My future…

I have a great deal of experience in the software and services industry.   My background includes time in development, support, delivery, and general operations theory, and practice.   I look forward to sharing my knowledge, experience, and philosophy  while learning from others in the industry.

Below is my twitter feed if you want to message me…