In 2005, PC World called the BlackBerry 850 (pictured, courtesy Blackberryline.com) the 14th greatest gadget of the past 50 years. Today, the BlackBerry creator, Research In Motion, is struggling to keep up with competitors like iPhone and Android.

The BlackBerry 850

How does a company fall from grace so quickly?

Jonathan S. Geller of Boy Genius Report (www.bgr.com) has an idea. In a recent article titled “Inside RIM: An exclusive look at the rise and fall of the company that made smartphones smart,” Geller takes a look at RIM’s history, including its personas and politics.

It’s an interesting inside look at how the iconic company evolved — and didn’t evolve when it missed product features and device trends like adding MP3 players and cameras to its phones.

Read the full article here.

Jenny Sweeney BlackBerry, FAIL, What We're Reading BlackBerry, Boy Genius Report, consumerization, iPhone, PC World

If you read only one article this week (not counting this blog post), make sure it’s this one by CIO.com’s Thomas Wailgum – “Enterprise IT’s Top Enemy: Its Own Arrogance.”

An IT department that points and laughs is hardly encouraging learning and business alignment.

The piece highlights the fact that the help desk, despite the growing importance of IT/business alignment in the enterprise, remains in the “condescending gatekeeper role.”

As evidence, Wailgum includes a video that features Andy Bitterer, co-chair of Gartner Group’s BI Summit, doing Jay Leno-style “man-on-the-street” interviews in London. Among Bitterer’s questions to the masses: “Do you use a database?” “Do you know what Business Intelligence tools are?” “Do you know what OLAP is?”

Honestly, does this Gartner bloke really expect everyday people to know what these things are? As Wailgum asserts, Gartner conference attendees may find it amusing (ha, look at the stupid users!), but it really demonstrates how out of touch IT is with its customers. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney FAIL, Help Desk Andy Bitterer, BI, business intelligence, CIO.com, Gartner, Jay Leno, London, OLAP, Thomas Wailgum

I’m sure it wasn’t intended as a humor piece, but this morning’s NPR radio report about the e-mail gaffe that occurred at the Bush White House in 2002 and 2003 was fine entertainment. In particular, this quote from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy from 2007 made me laugh: “That’s like saying the dog ate my homework. Those e-mails are there. They just don’t want to produce them.”

While many companies do have admirable archiving systems in place, just as many firms leave the details up to chance, the honor system, and other faulty methods.

Although I have never tried to get out of an assignment by saying a dog ate my homework, I have fouled up plenty, and confessing was quite difficult in some cases. But, what I have learned over the years is that if you ask for help, you will commit fewer blunders and have less mess to clean up.*

Back to the government e-mail issue. According to an article by Computerworld’s Patrick Thibodeau, the whole mess stemmed from a Domino/Notes-to-Microsoft Exchange migration. The old archiving system was phased out, but the new one was never implemented. From that point on, Thibodeau explains, the government manually archived messages. The result was millions of “missing” e-mails. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney FAIL, This Week in Tech News archiving, Douglas Schweitzer, e-mail, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, NPR, Patrick Thibodeau, Sen. Patrick Leahy

Aerial photo of nuclear power plant in Limerick PA. (Photo: Arturo Ramos, Creative Commons)

Remember dial-up? The squealing, pinging sounds that indicated a connection was imminent?

Imagine having to do your job using such obsolete technology today, when wireless is standard and photocopies can be made with a handheld computer. If you worked in one of the United States’ 66 nuclear power plants, that is precisely what you’d be working with.

According to a recent article on Wired.com, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has asked the operators of the U.S.’s 66 nuclear power plants to voluntarily upgrade the Emergency Response Data System, or ERDS, which plants use to report conditions to the government. Currently, the plants use dial-up; the NRC is hoping they switch to VPN.

But this story isn’t just about kitschy reactors and their quaint modems. The ERDS transmits critical data, like reactor conditions and radioactivity release rates. With dial-up, data transmission could be delayed by a busy signal (remember them?).

It seems unthinkable that an industry with such apocalyptic power would not be using the most efficient technology. But that’s just naïve. Think about the business world, which has its own apocalyptic power. Think about the antiquated processes and software used every day – and the resulting stymied productivity, clunky work processes, costly mistakes, and atrocious security.

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Jenny Sweeney FAIL dial-up modems, Emergency Response Data System, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, VPN

In an April post, I looked at the financial impact human error can have on a company. With news of Best Buy’s recent web site pricing doozy, it seems only fitting to revisit the issue.

Yesterday, Best Buy shocked customers with a whopper of a deal: a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for $9.99. Orders came in and credit cards were charged. Some customers attempted to buy up to 10 televisions each.

Best Buy issued a statement saying it would not honor the pricing error, so it may have saved itself heaps of money. Some companies haven’t been so lucky.

It was a mistake, of course, and the company corrected it promptly. The sale price should have been listed as $1,699.99. Still, customers were miffed, and Best Buy had to get to the business of refunding credit cards that had been charged, and doing a little reputation management via its web site, on Twitter, and elsewhere.

Best Buy issued a statement saying it would not honor the pricing error, so it may have saved itself heaps of money. Some companies haven’t been so lucky. Foul-ups involving a few decimal places may seem innocuous, but even the smallest mistake can cause millions of dollars in damage.

Consider the results of a landmark Dartmouth College study, which I wrote about in April. It offers a clear picture of what’s at stake. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney FAIL Best Buy, calculations, Dartmouth College, Excel, HDTVs, pricing error, Twitter