In the current issue of Telstra's customer magazine Business Insights the feature article is based on Hugh and myself. The article is here, with the full text of my quoted 'Six Steps to Success' is below.

Cloud computing: Interview with Ross Dawson and Hugh Bradlow

SIX STEPS TO SUCCESS
For businesses, the challenge is understanding the new technology and realising they’ll have to make significant shifts in the way they think and work to take full advantage of it all. Ross Dawson describes this process in his six steps to success, which covers everything from more flexible approaches to working, to new technology strategies.

01 BREATHE IN THE CLOUD
The first step is being aware of the way cloud computing works. ‘It’s the idea of breathing in the cloud,’ says Dawson. ‘The analogy with air reflects that it’s all around you, it’s pervasive, an unlimited resource. The cloud of computing resources is all around us and if we can tap that and breathe in to access that vital resource on which a business feeds, it will give us the resources and energy to grow.’

02 ENABLE DISTRIBUTED WORK
The second step involves a shift in the way we’ve traditionally worked and organised the workplace.

The key, says Dawson, is flexibility. ‘We have moved beyond the traditional, hierarchical organisation, beyond having clearly defined roles. Now an organisation is about how well the people can communicate and collaborate, to tap into these to respond to unforeseen situations, to take advantage of opportunities. Thinking of your office as the workplace is now an old concept which needs to be thrown out.’

The result of new work practices like these are increased efficiencies and productivity.

‘It creates this imperative of speed, where being faster to market and more responsive to customers is driving the success of businesses,’ Dawson says.

What this means is giving people the tools and technology to be able to work on the move.

‘You must facilitate this connection, inside and out, any time, anywhere, wherever they are,’ Dawson says. ‘And it enables individuals to live a richer life. Another key driver of this is that people have expectations of a greater work-life balance.’

03 BUILD A SUPPORTIVE CULTURE
Along with the tools and technology, a shift in thinking and workplace culture is required.

‘Enabling effective processes and ways of working is critical,’ Dawson says. ‘It’s about creating a culture that supports the ability to work effectively. When people are not in the office, there should be confidence the work is being done, supported by mutual trust.’

In this new culture, relationships are more important than ever.

‘As technology connects us more, the human relationships should become more important,’ Dawson says. ‘You can’t get away with a less supporting and trusting culture. If you don’t have those cultural aspects in place, you’re negatively impacting on your ability to compete.’

Again, the key is flexibility, both personal and organisational.

‘There’s a give and take needed, and it’s not about monitoring people, about micro-managing,’ Dawson says. ‘It’s about trying to see people are being productive and engaged.’

04 MAKE TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIC
The IT department plays a major role in this shift to new technologies, and requires its own transformation.

‘The technology function has usually been about buying PCs, installing software and maintaining it, and it often requires quite a few people and a lot of money to make this happen,’ Dawson says.

With cloud computing, that role changes and becomes more strategic.

‘A lot of this can be dealt with easily and effectively but, at the same time, accessing the cloud means you have extraordinary business flexibility, you can move into new markets, take on new products, improve customer service, far more quickly than before,’ Dawson says. ‘People working in IT need to take on a more strategic role in helping executives understand what the potential is. They need to be able to clarify the business opportunities afforded by technology.’

05 CREATE FLEXIBILITY AND SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES
With distributed work and an enabling culture in place, the next step is to build access to more resources.

‘Crowd sourcing is an example of how you can start to explore and find resources and new capabilities,’ Dawson says. ‘It’s about using the new capabilities you have and drawing on them, being able to research where you can find the new right opportunities. With more flexible ways of working and bringing people together in teams and building partnerships, as you see opportunities you can jump on them right away.’

06 UNDERSTAND AND TAP THE FORCES OF CHANGE
What every business needs is a deep understanding of the forces of change and what’s needed to tap into them.

‘There are ongoing forces of change – a business can not be run as a steady state,’ says Dawson. ‘Every business needs to take advantage of changes.’

I will be followed by Hugh Bradlow, Telstra's Chief Technology Officer, who will provide a more detailed vendor view of cloud computing.

There is no public website for the event; I was told to suggest you contact your Telstra account executive if you're interested in attending the event.

Below is a brief article I provided Telstra to help promote the event to their customers. I'll be fleshing out the thinking in this article in some further writing and quite possibly a cloud framework.

Tapping the forces of change

Take a deep breath. As you breathe in, think about the invisible substance that is all around us and sustains us, but we cannot see. Air is vital to us and fuels our energy. In the same way, businesses today are finding that access to a universe of computing resources on tap in the ether around them is helping to keep them healthy and drive their growth. A company's vitality increasingly depends on how readily it can breathe in this vital resource.

A confluence of powerful driving forces is driving the shift to cloud computing. In the domain of technology, exponential increases in bandwidth, rock-solid reliability, and mature technology platforms mean that on-demand computing resources now provide a compelling alternative to in-house computing.

However the business drivers are just as important. The rise of global competition and global opportunities, the need to innovate and reconfigure businesses at a ever-swifter pace, and the shift to technology as an enabler of new business models together provide a hefty impetus to the shift to cloud computing.

In the social domain, higher expectations, including of efficient use of energy and workplace computing that is as friendly as everyday web tools are changing how companies need to approach information technology.

Research shows that the performance gap between leading organisations and the laggards is increasing. One of the important drivers of this divergence is differing approaches to the use of enabling technologies. Technology alone does not drive company performance. However a potent mix of positive organisational culture and flexible technologies can provide a platform for increasing productivity and capturing ever-more fleeting market opportunities.

Join me to hear the key steps that companies can take to leverage the cloud, contain costs, increase revenue, and be at the top of the performance game.

At IBM, for example, 46,000 out of its 115,000 workers in the US were reported to be working at “alternative workplaces” including home. Many companies large and small are following this lead. Moreover, in the free agent economy a rising proportion people global headquarters IS their home office.

There are of course pointed upsides to working from home, not least forgoing frustrating commutes, as well as greater personal flexibility. But some people find it hard to get themselves motivated, and many miss the daily banter and social interactions of the office. This is not a trivial issue – the vagaries of working from home will be a shaping force on society and how companies operate.

One of the approaches more and more freelancers and home workers are taking is to regularly meet locally to work together, creating a pleasant, sociable, collaborative work environment.

A nice article in Strategy + Business titled The Promise of the Cloud Workplace explores this new landscape.

Co-working provides a single solution to multiple organizational problems: the space demands of flexible, multi-geographical workforces; the costs of permanent offices; the potential inconvenience of working at home (especially for employees with children); the inexperience that many employees have with alliances and joint ventures (which are natural outgrowths of shared space); the carbon footprint inherent in a commuting population; and the sheer waste of time, resources, human capability, and energy spent moving people back and forth across a metropolitan area, only to have them on the phone or reading e-mail most of the day.

The article points to a range of examples of co-working facilties, such as Roam Atlanta, the Hat Factory in San Francisco, and Steelcase’s Workspring in Chicago. It also mentions the Jelly movement, which provides a forum for people to organize their own work meetups in over 100 cities around the world. Web incubator Pollenizer, just around the corner from me, regularly hosts Jelly gatherings.

These initiatives are just the beginning of what will be a powerful force – new ways to enable people to socialize and share expertise, heartaches and successes, free of the constraints of office, commuting, and sometimes employers. This trend has a long way to go yet.