For this week's blog post I decided to do research on a position that my Dad has held for the last 30+ year as Operations Manager at a printing company. I know, the first question is, "how does this relate to computers and networks?" As the Operations Manager at Carr Printing Company he also has handled the computers (both hardware and software), servers, and networking for company in years passed and still does today. His position has evolved over the years as technology has changed and become more complex as he has tried to keep up with technology in the printing industry.
My dad's official position is Operations Manager, but as I mentioned above one of his core responsibilities is the computers, servers and network around the company offices. Aside from these responsibilities he also handles the flow of work through the shop and helps wherever needed. The printing industry has changed over the years, and the digital era has forced printing companies to keep up with it. Carr Printing has always been on the leading edge of latest technologies. One example, Carr Printing has always tried to give the customers the ability to view their print job in the comfort of their own home with a press-ready system. This allows them to view their job as it would be printed one last time before going to print. This technology is genius in today's busy schedules.
The other forward-thinking technology that Carr Printing has dove into was the ability for customers to create, modify and approve a print job created directly on their website using a system called Presswise. This allows the user to create a simple postcard, poster or business (etc) and submit it via their website to print. The other feature that it offers is the ability for customers to create templates for projects and reuse them in the future. For example, businesses generally will print business cards with almost the same graphical template only with a few changes on the textual side. With the template feature it allows Carr Printing to upload a template for a customer and they can jump on any time they want and create new business cards and submit them for print. Acquiring this technology took a lot of time and energy on the research side. My dad played a big part of that process in helping to ensure that this tool met the needs of their customers.
Aside from the website functionality my dad managers all of the computer, server and network devices in the shop. There are close to 150 computers running various different pieces of equipment. Everything from the presses, to the cutters to the job tracking system has required some effort from my dad in technical terms to ensure that it runs smoothly and fits the needs of the company. Overall, his job seems very difficult for me. The company he works for is a family company, and they have been really good to him for the years. He continues, like many others, to wear many hats in the organization and has really created a spot for him in the company. As technology continues he hopes to keep Carr Printing on the forefront of it to ensure that their customers continue to recognize the cutting edge technology that they can provide.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Module 3: Off-shoring, supply chaining and Google!
As I continue to read Friedman's book about our world becoming flat I am constantly pondering how this statement has changed my perspective on life. I've always been technically savvy, and enjoyed how technology has changed our world, but never from the big picture that he takes it. As I learn more I begin to realize just how serious the statement is, and how much we can do nothing to really get away from it. Globalization 3.0 is real, it's continuing today.
Offshoring is yet another component to the flattening of this world. Off-shoring is when a company physically moves a part of it's company out of it's original country and into a new one. It is different than outsourcing, where a service it moved to a separate company or group overseas, this is the relocation of a part of this company to a new place. This move has many advantages, primarily for overhead reasons. Property in certain areas of other countries could be much cheaper, and the salaries of employees could be much cheaper as well. This alone make offshoring a great choice for a business as long as the right skilled people can be acquired at the new location. Friedman's way to explain offshoring in relation to a gazelle and lion really helped me understand the concept. He talks about a gazelle waking up every morning determined to run faster than the fastest lion, or it will not survive. On the flip side, he talks about the lion waking up every morning determined to run faster to catch the slowest gazelle, otherwise it will starve. This is the concept behind offshoring. Businesses must find better ways to be more efficient and beat their competitor to survive. Offshoring is a huge part of this idea, and will continue into the coming years as offshoring becomes even easier.
Another one of the "flatteners" that Friedman talks about is supply chaining. The story about Wal-Mart and how they used supply chaining sent my mind in a never-ending loop of amazement. I've always wondered how Wal-Mart came around, and how their prices were so slow, now I know. The answer is supply chaining. Wal-Mart found a way to purchase good directly from the manufacturers to allow them to cut costs. They got familiar with what worked, and they turned it into a fine oiled machine. This is what made Wal-Mart what it is today. Because of this they have been able to allow their suppliers to actually bid to Wal-Mart, which allows them to pick and choose who their goods come from. This made them more competitive, and allowed them to drop their prices. With supply chaining and the help of newer technologies they are able to keep prices down and profits up.
My last "flattener" for my blog post today is one of the biggest ones, and that is Google. A word that has gained a meaning of "to search the entire web for something." Nowadays "Googling" something is something that we just do. Google, is a huge flattener. Google has brought a world of information to our finger-tips. What's ironic is that Google doesn't make their money off of your searches, it makes money off of the advertisers that want their ads to show up when you search for certain things. Google has taken search to a level that only they could envision. Google has taken such a simple business model, and put a ton of firepower behind it to make Google into the empire that it is today. Because of this information being at our fingertips businesses have both prevailed a suffered. Finding dirt on companies has never been easier, but also finding positive reviews on a companies services are just as easy to find. Due to the ad model behind Google businesses will continue to learn the system and find better ways to become relevant when certain searches are performed in specific areas at specific times during the day. That's how smart Google is.
So far I am really enjoying this book. The experiences that he has had over the years are mind-blowing. He sees everything, and he sees this all from a new perspective that I've never really thought about. Our world is truly flat, and the reasons are just piling up!
Offshoring is yet another component to the flattening of this world. Off-shoring is when a company physically moves a part of it's company out of it's original country and into a new one. It is different than outsourcing, where a service it moved to a separate company or group overseas, this is the relocation of a part of this company to a new place. This move has many advantages, primarily for overhead reasons. Property in certain areas of other countries could be much cheaper, and the salaries of employees could be much cheaper as well. This alone make offshoring a great choice for a business as long as the right skilled people can be acquired at the new location. Friedman's way to explain offshoring in relation to a gazelle and lion really helped me understand the concept. He talks about a gazelle waking up every morning determined to run faster than the fastest lion, or it will not survive. On the flip side, he talks about the lion waking up every morning determined to run faster to catch the slowest gazelle, otherwise it will starve. This is the concept behind offshoring. Businesses must find better ways to be more efficient and beat their competitor to survive. Offshoring is a huge part of this idea, and will continue into the coming years as offshoring becomes even easier.
Another one of the "flatteners" that Friedman talks about is supply chaining. The story about Wal-Mart and how they used supply chaining sent my mind in a never-ending loop of amazement. I've always wondered how Wal-Mart came around, and how their prices were so slow, now I know. The answer is supply chaining. Wal-Mart found a way to purchase good directly from the manufacturers to allow them to cut costs. They got familiar with what worked, and they turned it into a fine oiled machine. This is what made Wal-Mart what it is today. Because of this they have been able to allow their suppliers to actually bid to Wal-Mart, which allows them to pick and choose who their goods come from. This made them more competitive, and allowed them to drop their prices. With supply chaining and the help of newer technologies they are able to keep prices down and profits up.
My last "flattener" for my blog post today is one of the biggest ones, and that is Google. A word that has gained a meaning of "to search the entire web for something." Nowadays "Googling" something is something that we just do. Google, is a huge flattener. Google has brought a world of information to our finger-tips. What's ironic is that Google doesn't make their money off of your searches, it makes money off of the advertisers that want their ads to show up when you search for certain things. Google has taken search to a level that only they could envision. Google has taken such a simple business model, and put a ton of firepower behind it to make Google into the empire that it is today. Because of this information being at our fingertips businesses have both prevailed a suffered. Finding dirt on companies has never been easier, but also finding positive reviews on a companies services are just as easy to find. Due to the ad model behind Google businesses will continue to learn the system and find better ways to become relevant when certain searches are performed in specific areas at specific times during the day. That's how smart Google is.
So far I am really enjoying this book. The experiences that he has had over the years are mind-blowing. He sees everything, and he sees this all from a new perspective that I've never really thought about. Our world is truly flat, and the reasons are just piling up!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Module 2: Workflow, Open Source and Outsourcing
I continue to learn more and more as I get deeper and deeper into Friendman's book. It's sent me into some deep thought and discussions with other people that I never thought I would think about. He continues to dive into his "flatteners" and give more depth into his book's title. Over the next portion of the book he gets into what's called workflow computing, open source software and outsourcing. I will go into each one of these in depth with some of my experience in each.
I have been using computers for a long time. I, like many others, have developed an expectation for computers. In a way my sense for what a computer can do has been numbed. The #3 flattener is based around workflow computing, and has got me thinking quite a bit. Workflow software is really the flattening of business software. Nowadays, this is an expectation, but it was not always that way. The example that he states in his book is about a warehouse that has a printed invoice hand delivered to them that they need to fill. Once they fill it they take the same invoice to the shipping department. That's not exactly how it went, but you get the point. This process is definitely not a smooth process, and leaves too much room for error. With software today order, inventory, shipping and billing systems are now integrated into one seamless system. This allows things to flow smoothly through one department to the next without any extra papers, or manual work. This is most definitely one of the strongest flatteners, in my opinion.
One example of workflow software that I played a big part in was for a wildlife foundation here in Utah. They have several groups of members throughout the world that hold banquets on a regular basis. At these banquets they sell merchandise that gets supplied from the headquarters in Salt Lake City. Up until last year the processing of these products has always been tracked by an Excel spreadsheet. In my last job, our job was to automate this process and make it less hands on. That's exactly what we did. We built an online shop for the different group leaders to log on to and submit their orders. The online shop tracks inventory for them so they don't have to. It was just upgraded recently so that it will send notifications to their vendors about orders that are getting placed. The vendors receive a PDF of the products that were ordered, so they can send the products to the headquarters and allow them enough time to ship it. That is automation!
The next is open source software, something that I never thought of as a "flattener." Open source software is something that has created a career for me for the last 3-4 years. Open source software is community-based software that gets developed and tested by a community of people, usually for free. This software then gets distributed, for free, to the world via the Internet or some other means. As I mentioned, open source software has played a big part in my life. About 4 years ago I began basing my web development project around some of this open source software, and my experience has been great ever since. It's amazing what so many people do for free out there. This software has definitely contributed to the flattening of the world, and will continue to do so.
While open source software is great, it does have it's drawbacks. Since it's not paid software, there is usually not "free" support that you can get on it. There are ways of getting help, but it will never be as reliable as picking up the phone and calling a 24/7 support line. I can say that the support that I've experience with open source software has always impressed me, but for emergency things it cannot measure up to paid software. Aside from that open source software is great, and always will be. There are so many great people around the world that like to see software built well and with the community that uses it at the forefront. This is why open source software excels.
Lastly, let's talk a little about outsourcing. This is something that happens in almost every company today. It allows a company to reach out to another company (usually for less money) and have them produce the same work. This can be done for several reasons, but the primary reason is for cost. The other reason will usually be due to lack of resources. Outsourcing is continuing to grow, and will continue to grow in the years to come. Companies are getting smarter, and are finding ways of making outsourcing work. Lots of money is being saved, and they are also able get things done right for the same money or sometimes less. Outsourcing is the future of business in America.
One experience I had with outsourcing was also in my last job at a Marketing Firm in Salt Lake City. We decided to outsource the design and development of an online portal over to the Phillipines. We met with the guy that was in charge of the group of developers overseas, and even with 2 Americans that were on their way over there to oversee the project. The project fell flat on it's face over there. We lost $3k and really were left with next to nothing. The work was poorly done, and made us look bad. In the end we accepted our losses, and moved forward. This experience is one, and I have heard of many others that are huge successes. Outsourcing stories like this are still happening, but it will not be that way for long. Certain tasks are becoming more common, and therefore will continue to grow just like the other flatteners that have been mentioned.
I have been using computers for a long time. I, like many others, have developed an expectation for computers. In a way my sense for what a computer can do has been numbed. The #3 flattener is based around workflow computing, and has got me thinking quite a bit. Workflow software is really the flattening of business software. Nowadays, this is an expectation, but it was not always that way. The example that he states in his book is about a warehouse that has a printed invoice hand delivered to them that they need to fill. Once they fill it they take the same invoice to the shipping department. That's not exactly how it went, but you get the point. This process is definitely not a smooth process, and leaves too much room for error. With software today order, inventory, shipping and billing systems are now integrated into one seamless system. This allows things to flow smoothly through one department to the next without any extra papers, or manual work. This is most definitely one of the strongest flatteners, in my opinion.
One example of workflow software that I played a big part in was for a wildlife foundation here in Utah. They have several groups of members throughout the world that hold banquets on a regular basis. At these banquets they sell merchandise that gets supplied from the headquarters in Salt Lake City. Up until last year the processing of these products has always been tracked by an Excel spreadsheet. In my last job, our job was to automate this process and make it less hands on. That's exactly what we did. We built an online shop for the different group leaders to log on to and submit their orders. The online shop tracks inventory for them so they don't have to. It was just upgraded recently so that it will send notifications to their vendors about orders that are getting placed. The vendors receive a PDF of the products that were ordered, so they can send the products to the headquarters and allow them enough time to ship it. That is automation!
The next is open source software, something that I never thought of as a "flattener." Open source software is something that has created a career for me for the last 3-4 years. Open source software is community-based software that gets developed and tested by a community of people, usually for free. This software then gets distributed, for free, to the world via the Internet or some other means. As I mentioned, open source software has played a big part in my life. About 4 years ago I began basing my web development project around some of this open source software, and my experience has been great ever since. It's amazing what so many people do for free out there. This software has definitely contributed to the flattening of the world, and will continue to do so.
While open source software is great, it does have it's drawbacks. Since it's not paid software, there is usually not "free" support that you can get on it. There are ways of getting help, but it will never be as reliable as picking up the phone and calling a 24/7 support line. I can say that the support that I've experience with open source software has always impressed me, but for emergency things it cannot measure up to paid software. Aside from that open source software is great, and always will be. There are so many great people around the world that like to see software built well and with the community that uses it at the forefront. This is why open source software excels.
Lastly, let's talk a little about outsourcing. This is something that happens in almost every company today. It allows a company to reach out to another company (usually for less money) and have them produce the same work. This can be done for several reasons, but the primary reason is for cost. The other reason will usually be due to lack of resources. Outsourcing is continuing to grow, and will continue to grow in the years to come. Companies are getting smarter, and are finding ways of making outsourcing work. Lots of money is being saved, and they are also able get things done right for the same money or sometimes less. Outsourcing is the future of business in America.
One experience I had with outsourcing was also in my last job at a Marketing Firm in Salt Lake City. We decided to outsource the design and development of an online portal over to the Phillipines. We met with the guy that was in charge of the group of developers overseas, and even with 2 Americans that were on their way over there to oversee the project. The project fell flat on it's face over there. We lost $3k and really were left with next to nothing. The work was poorly done, and made us look bad. In the end we accepted our losses, and moved forward. This experience is one, and I have heard of many others that are huge successes. Outsourcing stories like this are still happening, but it will not be that way for long. Certain tasks are becoming more common, and therefore will continue to grow just like the other flatteners that have been mentioned.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Netscape's role...
As I'm reading more into this whole Netscape situation I am reminded of the year 1995 when I started getting into the Internet via AOL. AOL was what my parents used, and that's what helped me get "connected."
The role of Netscape was HUGE. Much bigger than I think anyone that has never read this book realizes. There move to open up the program with trial versions was a genius way to push the Internet on it's way. Was it necessary? No, absolutely not . . . but it did fuel the fire and cause it to take off even faster. There could have been even more money out of this new thing called "The Internet" but seeing as it was going to "grow and grow and grow" there was no need to monetize it too much. The real value in the Internet is, and always will be, the massive amounts of content that are available on it. I'm sure they saw that and recognized that the more that's there, the more people will want it.
I'm LOVING this part of the book. Anyone else listening? :)
The role of Netscape was HUGE. Much bigger than I think anyone that has never read this book realizes. There move to open up the program with trial versions was a genius way to push the Internet on it's way. Was it necessary? No, absolutely not . . . but it did fuel the fire and cause it to take off even faster. There could have been even more money out of this new thing called "The Internet" but seeing as it was going to "grow and grow and grow" there was no need to monetize it too much. The real value in the Internet is, and always will be, the massive amounts of content that are available on it. I'm sure they saw that and recognized that the more that's there, the more people will want it.
I'm LOVING this part of the book. Anyone else listening? :)
Module 1: The World is Flat
Is the world we live on flat? According to Thomas L. Friedman, it is. In his book ironically titled, "The World is Flat" he discusses his reasoning. He refers to the different contributors as flatteners. It makes you wonder if he picked that title because he knew it would draw attention to it and spark people's curiosity. Like many others that have reviewed the book, I don't like how he goes through such a huge explanation as to why the world is flat. It proves that the title was not generated creatively, but purely to draw attention. Aside from the title I have really enjoyed the book and the stories are very interesting that he shares. In the first section he introduces three different levels of Globalization, the Berlin Wall, and Netscape.
A large part of the first part of this book is the discussion of the different phases of globalization that the world has gone through, in Friedman's eyes. The first, entitled Globalization 1.0 spans from 1492 to the year 1800 when Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent. The second phase was then called globalization 2.0 spanned from 1800 to the year 2000. Lastly, globalization 3.0 began in 2000 and continues today.
During the first era of globalization it wasn't businesses but it was countries and governments. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a large event that opened up the area economically. This definitely was a flattener, in a very literal sense. Many things changed after this event that have shaped the world as a whole.
The timeline of each phase makes sense to to me. The year 2000 was a big turning point with a lot of things with the Internet and technology in-general. I think that in the last few years it has escalated even faster than it did in 2000 with the advancement of smart phones and portable tablets. So many things have played a huge role in getting us to where we are today that it's hard to pin point one specific thing. All in all, every new discovery of technology has somehow contributed to put us where we are today.
One other flattener to getting us where we are at today has been the creation of the world wide web (WWW). The WWW has changed us in ways that we never could have imagined. Shopping can be done in the comfort of your home, with the product being processed through another end of the country, while the product gets shipped from overseas. Definitely a flattener that continues to flatten our world and make us feel like the water and mountains no longer separate us.
The beginning of this whirlwind called the Internet started with a simple browser called Netscape. This browser brought the Internet to a wider audience, which made people realize the power that it contained. Netscape was closely followed by Windows 95, which brought native support to the world and made getting online even easier. From that point on the sky has been the limit as to where it will go next. With faster computers and faster connections we have the world at our finger tips.
Because of this advancement alone the world as we know it (and as Friedman knows it) has become flat. We are closer then we ever have been before. Businesses can outsource work much easier, and communication is a click away. Sometimes I wonder if the sky is even the limit to what will be coming next.
A large part of the first part of this book is the discussion of the different phases of globalization that the world has gone through, in Friedman's eyes. The first, entitled Globalization 1.0 spans from 1492 to the year 1800 when Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent. The second phase was then called globalization 2.0 spanned from 1800 to the year 2000. Lastly, globalization 3.0 began in 2000 and continues today.
During the first era of globalization it wasn't businesses but it was countries and governments. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a large event that opened up the area economically. This definitely was a flattener, in a very literal sense. Many things changed after this event that have shaped the world as a whole.
The timeline of each phase makes sense to to me. The year 2000 was a big turning point with a lot of things with the Internet and technology in-general. I think that in the last few years it has escalated even faster than it did in 2000 with the advancement of smart phones and portable tablets. So many things have played a huge role in getting us to where we are today that it's hard to pin point one specific thing. All in all, every new discovery of technology has somehow contributed to put us where we are today.
One other flattener to getting us where we are at today has been the creation of the world wide web (WWW). The WWW has changed us in ways that we never could have imagined. Shopping can be done in the comfort of your home, with the product being processed through another end of the country, while the product gets shipped from overseas. Definitely a flattener that continues to flatten our world and make us feel like the water and mountains no longer separate us.
The beginning of this whirlwind called the Internet started with a simple browser called Netscape. This browser brought the Internet to a wider audience, which made people realize the power that it contained. Netscape was closely followed by Windows 95, which brought native support to the world and made getting online even easier. From that point on the sky has been the limit as to where it will go next. With faster computers and faster connections we have the world at our finger tips.
Because of this advancement alone the world as we know it (and as Friedman knows it) has become flat. We are closer then we ever have been before. Businesses can outsource work much easier, and communication is a click away. Sometimes I wonder if the sky is even the limit to what will be coming next.
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