1. The credit crunch will continue to affect IT spending for 2008.  This will mean a trend away from major IT projects and smaller more incremental projects will be more in vogue.  A new born baby could have predicted this one but I certainly didn’t envisage the scale of the problem caused by Lehmans in September!
2. The length of time senior people stay in post is ever reducing.  This will continue to drive short termism and this will strengthen the enterprise resolve to look for incremental, rather than big bang change.  Executive bonuses are frequently paid against cost/income ratios or short term profits.  Major investments in large capital projects do not pay back in the required time period to fulfil bonus aspirations.  I don’t have any data on this but I sense it is even more pertinent right now as we stare gloomily into a “short term or bust” depression.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS) and the like will become increasingly adopted by the enterprise as business users vote with their feet on offerings from the internal IT department that are too slow, too expensive and too capital hungry.  Not sure about this one.  I probably expected more of my customers to move to salesforce.com for example.
4. Despite this, Web 2.0 technologies sold as Enterprise 2.0 (wikis, social networking, mashups et al) will be slower to take off despite the buzz.  Still agree here although very recently I’ve seen one or two people thinking a bit harder about internal social networking/KM etc.
5. SOA will continue to be hyped by the big vendors but successful case studies will still be slow to emerge.  Anyone who has a real genuine success story where a meaningful ROI was derived, please ping it over.
6. Enterprise IT departments will start to realise that they need to align themselves more closely with the business.  They are ideally positioned to advise the business on how to use all IT, whether internal or external, built or purchased, collaborative or silo based.  The IT function will hopefully start to be seen as a trusted adviser rather than an obstructive gatekeeper.  I have sadly seen little evidence of this in the UK.  I have sincere hopes for 2009.
7. The percentage of IT budget spent on compliance issues will increase, especially in UK financial services where CCA 2006, MiFID, TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) and SOX, for example, will all feature.  In retail banking right now, compliance/legal seems to be the only reason for budget approval of a project.
8. Security will remain a critical issue and automatically features right at the top of every CIO agenda. Because of various high profile customer data leaks in 2007, data protection will be a big ticket initiative in many large organisations.  Another one that anyone with damp ear behinds could have predicted – related to compliance (above)
9. The green agenda will gather momentum with all organisations attaching increased importance to social and environmental responsibility. “Green computing” will be one of the hyped phrases of 2008.  The phrase was hyped but once the credit crunch started to bite, green credentials slip down the list behind business survival.
10. And finally, I hope Blue Prism will continue to grow rapidly, serving and adding value for all its stakeholders: Customers; staff; business partners; investors and government (taxes).  Happy to report a record year of profitable growth.

As this is also my 111th post, cricket fans will understand why I am writing it standing on one leg.

Rather than wallow in cringing self congratulation, I want to use this opportunity to congratulate Wordpress, the platform of choice for the grown up blogger.  Wordpress has supported both my blogs for 12 months without the merest hint of a problem, which is more than can be said for my ISP.

I only wish our corporate website was so flexible.

And so I confidently assure you that some of the following predictions may come true in 2008, and some may not.  Anyway it’s a bit of fun at the end of a year to speculate wildly about next year.  My job takes me into a wide range of enterprise sized organisations and I speak to both IT and business people.  Here’s my top 10 predictions for UK enterprise software, based on no more than anecdotal evidence collected from friends, customers, business partners, sales prospects and competitors:

1. The credit crunch will continue to affect IT spending for 2008.  This will mean a trend away from major IT projects and smaller more incremental projects will be more in vogue.
2. The length of time senior people stay in post is ever reducing.  This will continue to drive short termism and this will strengthen the enterprise resolve to look for incremental, rather than big bang change.  Executive bonuses are frequently paid against cost/income ratios or short term profits.  Major investments in large capital projects do not pay back in the required time period to fulfil bonus aspirations.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS) and the like will become increasingly adopted by the enterprise as business users vote with their feet on offerings from the internal IT department that are too slow, too expensive and too capital hungry.
4. Despite this, Web 2.0 technologies sold as Enterprise 2.0 (wikis, social networking, mashups et al) will be slower to take off despite the buzz.
5. SOA will continue to be hyped by the big vendors but successful case studies will still be slow to emerge.
6. Enterprise IT departments will start to realise that they need to align themselves more closely with the business.  They are ideally positioned to advise the business on how to use all IT, whether internal or external, built or purchased, collaborative or silo based.  The IT function will hopefully start to be seen as a trusted adviser rather than an obstructive gatekeeper.
7. The percentage of IT budget spent on compliance issues will increase, especially in UK financial services where CCA 2006, MiFID, TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) and SOX, for example, will all feature.
8. Security will remain a critical issue and automatically features right at the top of every CIO agenda. Because of various high profile customer data leaks in 2007, data protection will be a big ticket initiative in many large organisations.
9. The green agenda will gather momentum with all organisations attaching increased importance to social and environmental responsibility. “Green computing” will be one of the hyped phrases of 2008.
10. And finally, I hope Blue Prism will continue to grow rapidly, serving and adding value for all its stakeholders: Customers; staff; business partners; investors and government (taxes).

For me, 2007 has been a year of hard work, much progress, interesting people, and above all great fun, and I am looking forward optimistically to the next 12 months.

Can I wish you all health, happiness and good fortune in 2008.

In this post he comes across as an exhausted inventor who has finally seen his new gadget rolling off the production line.  It is hard work launching an enterprise software company.  I know because I have tried it.  Many of Ismael’s comments could apply to Blue Prism equally.  The issue of market timing resonated in particular.

Does this mean that there is a degree of serendipity about the chance of success?

I wouldn’t pretend for one moment that Blue Prism has yet reached “success” whatever that is (and it means different things to different people).  Like Ismael, I am very encouraged by progress, especially in the last 6 months, albeit the first version of Automate was released in 2004, some 3.5 years ago and, let’s just say that meeting our revenue forecasts was much harder than anyone expected.

It can be lonely at times as a Managing Director (try not to weep).  When I used to work in a bank as a middle manager I had any number of peers I could relate to, and discuss ideas and issues with.  Since that is no longer a route open to me, I try to find peers outside the company.  As a result I know quite a few people who either run (or used to run) enterprise software companies.

This got me thinking.  What are the key characteristics that determine a successful MD or CEO?  Obvious requirements that might spring to mind might include:

• A keen aptitude for marketing
• Technical vision
• Ability to inspire people
• Financial astuteness
• Ability to sell
• A propensity for making customers happy
• The gift of the gab

Looking across the successful people I know, the most important characteristics are none of the above.  They are energy and determination.  Fortunately, both characteristics that Ismael has in Spades.

Anyway I really risk boring you here, as I am on my old hobby horse – the inability of IT people to be smart enough to understand the business and make a meaningful contribution at all levels of the enterprise.  In particular the worrying emerging trend seems to be that CIOs are losing their seat at the board table.  This article in Computer Weekly is typical of late.  American readers should note that we Brits see less difference than you between a CIO, and an IT director, and the terms are often used interchangeably here.

Transatlantic idiosyncrasies aside, the important point is that the top IT job in the enterprise is losing power and voice.  This worries me because IT really ought to find it easy to justify its seat at the board table in the vast majority of large organisations.

Let’s be honest, every discipline wants a seat at the board table.  In a previous life I worked in facilities management and the industry bodies made lots of noise about the importance of FM, the size of the budgets, and the importance of “getting it right” vs the cost of “getting it wrong”.  IT has all those arguments and a whole lot more.  Not least the fact that IT can be one of the biggest enablers of increased sales/reduced costs/improved service/better customer knowledge and interaction etc etc etc.  So why aren’t the boards of our enterprise sized organisations rushing to lift IT’s profile?

Is this a reflection of the apocryphal “$100M diary system” CRM implementation?  The business view that every IT project costs a lot and delivers a little?

I think there are many unfair aspects to this criticism but, at the end of the day, the onus is on the IT team to prove that IT is a business driver and not just a cost centre.  I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it – IT people need to listen to what the business wants, and deliver the right solutions at the right prices.  Then there is time to bask in a little glory and sell your achievements.  After all it’s important not only to deliver, but also to show you have delivered.

As Steven Covey once said, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

In the CW article the quote I liked the most was from Tesco IT Director, Colin Cobain who said “IT directors should not have to sell IT to the board. They should work with them to solve problems. Part of this involves the IT leader having a clear vision of where the business is heading and making sure that they leverage the most relevant technologies to this end”.

I couldn’t agree more and such a statement makes Tesco look like a much more exciting place to work in IT.

I now have two real concerns about wearing it.

1. The only people who will recognise the logo will be geeks, and I will look like one myself.  Do I have to stop shaving?  What do I do if I get approached and asked an awkward question?
2. As a Manchester City fan, the colour red (Man United) is anathema to me.  What if people think I am a Man United supporting geek?  Come on guys, can we please have a blue T-Shirt next????

The last few months have been really hard work in my day job and I’ve not had time to do much, other than work.  In particular, my physical exercise has been almost non-existent.  I admit to being a little overweight but throughout my life I have always kept reasonably fit.  Not so in the last 6 months.  I like Steven Covey’s thoughts on this.  Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw.  It’s really important, so my mid-year resolution is to exercise more and (hopefully) lose a few pounds, and boost my energy levels.

I have also been thinking about blogging.  I started this blog in February of 2007.  I had been running an internal blog at Blue Prism and figured that there was nothing very secretive so why not share my thoughts more widely.

There was also a commercial element since firstly, people who read this blog are more likely to encounter Blue Prism and secondly, I can explore some concepts that are helpful, or interesting to us (e.g. the Rogue IT Survey).  Having said that I absolutely reserve the right to write about what interests me and that frequently has no relation to my employers.

So, for the record, here’s a few things you may or may not want to know about me and why I blog:

1. I am Alastair Bathgate, the managing director of Blue Prism Limited, a UK based software vendor that specialises in robotic integration.
2. I am 43 years old with 10 years experience in enterprise software.  Most of my earlier career was spent in financial services but I have also worked in retail fmcg and manufacturing.
3. I founded Blue Prism in 2001 with Dave Moss, who I respect more than any other technical individual I know.
4. Unlike many “corporate” blogs I am under no contractual restriction and I therefore discuss what I like.
5. I do not have any “health warning” or “safe harbor” statement on this blog.  You can take my views as you find them and either relate them to Blue Prism or not, as you wish.  I admit that it helps that Blue Prism is a privately held company.
6. I am not an IT architect, CIO, CTO, ex-programmer, or IT visionary but I have an outside interest in all those things.  Anorak fact – in 1979-80 I did some programming in BASIC but rarely admit this.
7. I do have a background in project management in IT, and other disciplines.
8. I love the complex nature of enterprises but don’t want to work directly for one.
9. I enjoy blogging and occasionally take the opportunity to rant.
10. The readership of my blog is not large but it is diverse geographically and disciplinarily (is that the right word?  I mean readers come from many disciplines).
11. I really appreciate it when someone takes the trouble to leave a comment, even if they disagree with me.
12. Every day I learn something new about enterprise software, and the rate at which I learn has doubled every year since we started the company (hey that means I learnt 32 times more in the last 12 months than I did in the first year of existence – that sounds about right, actually).
13. I am sometimes accused of being too honest for my own good.
14. I drink far too much wine but I really enjoy it.
15. I think this blog is a bit too dry by comparison to my wine one.  I really do have a sense of humour – honest.
16. I feel really privileged to be part of a generation that has experienced some of the most exciting technological advances in the history of man.
17. My music tastes range from opera to punk.  I recently saw the Foo Fighters at Live Earth and they were great.  The Beastie Boys were rubbish.
18. I don’t like anonymity in the blogosphere.  I think that all contributors should stand up and be counted.  You should be able to get to know a bit about someone by reading their weblog.  I am guilty of being too remote in this blog and hope to put that right in the future.

So in the interests of honesty and openness, I declare that this blog has a commercial purpose.  I have already connected with a number of useful people via the blog, some potentially customers, some potentially suppliers, some potentially employees, some already competitors.  I am also unapologetically enthusiastic about the space Blue Prism is in – things are really exciting right now.

Equally though, I reserve the right for this to be a personal blog.  A place to capture my thoughts for my own purposes.  I don’t see why the two things can’t be combined.

I thoroughly recommend it to anyone.  At first you feel naked without digital communications and then you start to relax and really enjoy.  However, returning home tonight I couldn’t wait to get back online!

For the record I was mostly in Cornwall (one of the most beautiful parts of the UK).  Well worth the six hour drive to get there.  Any visitors to the UK should definitely try to get down to The Eden Project in St Austell – truly inspirational!  If you live in the UK you have either already visited, or have a visit planned.

Following the recent receipt of two spam comments, I decided to enable Akismet.  In the last two days things have gone wild!  Akismet has captured nearly 200 spam comments across the two blogs that I run.

Whilst I am delighted that Akismet has intervened, I am nervous about enabling people to leave comments without moderation.  I have never refused to allow a genuine comment, positive or negative but I am trying to balance the benefits of allowing un-moderated comments versus the risk of getting spammed to death for those that get through the Akismet filter.  Any more experienced bloggers out there with any advice?