Software – PCIS Ltd.

Forbes. Slack and the future of workplace collaboration

September 5, 2019

I use Slack to help manage projects. It’s pretty useful. Apparently, others think so, too. After its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the company was worth $23 billion. But something about Slack’s rise had me thinking about how much further it could go — and if it’s not careful, how far it has to fall. Here’s an introduction to my commentary about workplace collaboration in Forbes. About five minutes after their triumph, it would be funny at best,…

How Twitter could become a real business again

Twitter. The should, the could, the would company

January 15, 2018

Thought Leadership

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Twitter, the decade plus old company is still trying to define what it is and how to make money. It is trapped in a business model of providing free service in exchange for our souls and friends. Based on the past performance there is little hope that Twitter’s future will be brighter. The number of free users is not growing fast enough (if at all) and the revenue from ads is not rising fast enough to stop the bleeding. What…

Facebook is on its way to dominate the world

March 27, 2015

Thought Leadership

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Facebook is now ready to dominate the online world of business with the latest announcement from its F8 conference. The company made it very clear that having 1.35 billion active users and allowing them to share bad selfies and cat videos is not their end game. I’m shocked. Really. True, Facebook is making some good money from advertising but hey – that’s just for the cash flow. Their strategy is to dominate businesses within the social networking site as well…

Even Jack Sparrow can have a copy of Windows

March 21, 2015

Thought Leadership

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How do you combat software theft? Give it away for free. Microsoft recently announced that anyone in China who has a copy of the Windows 7 Operating System (and up), legitimate or illegitimate, will be able to upgrade for free to the new Windows 10 version. The estimated number of users, who would be able to take the advantage of this offer, would be in the hundreds of millions! Why would Microsoft do such a crazy thing as giving their…

Amazon, is it science fiction or reality? Turns out, it’s both.

March 6, 2015

Thought Leadership

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Amazon, the global warehouse for universe of goods, is promised us next-day delivery – hey wait, that’s yesteryear’s news. Although many current online retailers still struggle with this, with Amazon that chestnut of a promise is from so many years ago now. Not to be discouraged, Amazon has upped the ante several times. First, the internet giant started with same day delivery – and just how did they do that? Amazon created distribution centres where the highest volumes of purchases…

DropBox goes to the office

December 17, 2014

Thought Leadership

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DrobBox the cloud-based hard drive service with unlimited storage (for a price) offering convenient synchronization between all your devices. You get started with few free gigabytes to get you going and few extra gigabytes when you sign up a friend. It has quickly become the nightmare of IT departments around the world. The zero-barriers entry, ease of use, and ease of sharing files with colleagues, customers and friends makes DropBox the new Trojan horse of IT. Once again, IT managers…

Google is Breaking Bad

December 4, 2014

Thought Leadership

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The European Union (EU) decided the time has come to break up Google http://g3t.ca/vyBTFr – Why? Because Google has more than 90% of market share in Europe and the EU does not like the fact that the internet giant is trying to offer the best user experience and capture the majority of the advertising euros. To the EU, Google is for lack of a better word, a monopoly. Let’s consider for a moment the possibility that Google would be broken…

What do real estate and dating have in common?

November 26, 2014

Thought Leadership

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As mentioned in the previous post, last week I attended the Data Leadership Summit – http://www.datasummit.ca in Vancouver. It brought together a diverse audience to see speakers from different industries with different perspectives and experiences. In my opinion, there were two presentations which were particularly compelling. One was from real estate brokerage Redfin, the other from the online dating service Plentyoffish. I found it interesting that both shared many common themes. For instance, the level of exaggeration when one describing…

IBM is betting big on Watson

November 12, 2014

Thought Leadership

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There were two news stories from IBM in regards to Watson last week. The first one was about a partnership between IBM and Twitter. The news release is full of great promises – Analytics Services on Cloud, which should deliver cognitive services in the palm of your hand; predictive analytics; visualization. Between Twitter and Watson, you’ll be able to keep the pulse on the planet. Unleashing Watson’s mind on the endless stream of Tweets, reminds me of a quote from…

Big Data or Hype?

October 20, 2014

Thought Leadership

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Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here…. Big Data or Hype? The Globe and Mail reported that the Maple Leafs are betting big on Big Data. It is surprising that it has taken them this long. Other sport organizations, notably the MLB with its sabermetrics (http://g3t.ca/q1hK49), have been doing it for quite some time. The Maple Leafs started pouring resources into gathering data, analysis, visualization and predictive analytics.…