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.