Continued from How Oracle Licensing Differs. To help alleviate and prevent this situation, managers responsible for Oracle licensing should have a game plan on how to ensure their software compliance. They should get ahead of the game and make sure licensing issues are caught early before the company is already dependant on a platform build on an unlicensed product. Some suggestions are: • Teach developers, testers, and administrators about the Oracle licensing model • Explain to DBA’s and developers which features are included in the base license and which are addons which cost extra. • Explain to them how your company has licensed Oracle products to make sure they understand actions which will bring you out of compliance • Keep an updated license inventory that includes all Oracle software installations, # of users, # of cpu’s on installed server, used features, server name, database name, etc • Use server administrators as gatekeepers to stop unapproved software installations. This is due to the fact that Oracle needs administrator privileges to be installed. • Designate at least one person to make sure they understand the Oracle licensing model in depth such what the different kinds of licenses are and how they are related and used • Create an approval chain where a specific manager or designated employee is responsible for making sure a new deployment is either covered by existing licenses or new licenses are purchased. The yearly renewal is an opportunity for Oracle to create a new revenue stream when you purchase licenses to bring your company into compliance. When you do find yourself out of compliance and need to purchase a batch of new licenses, please read Oracle Licensing | Reducing Costs – What they Don’t Want You to Know to find out how to protect yourself in the future and have the most flexibility in your licensing agreements. Related Articles: Oracle Licensing | Reducing Costs – What they Don’t Want You to Know

There is a fundamental reason why any IT organization is successful and considered to be a valuable asset to the company. The quality of relationships that IT leaders develop with each other, customers, and other business units directly relate to the success that the IT organization achieves as a whole. The IT executive’s ability to build quality relationships and a bridge gaps between sales, marketing, and other lines of business can make or break IT’s success. IT value in the new economy is not about how fast an application responds, but the quality of personal relationships the CIO and IT management develop with other business units and customers. Pure technology is essentially black and white. It is the human interactions that makes or breaks many projects and initiatives. Consider an example of an IT project that you have mostly likely seen in your organization. A key IT initiative meant to drive efficiency in a critical business process is approved and started. This is cross functional and requires close interaction and input from several teams to be a success. As with many projects, eventually a show stopping issue is uncovered. When management of conflicting teams have a good personal relationship, and openly share information they come together, discuss the options, and mutually decide on a course of action and the project continues uninterrupted. When the same management does not have a good relationship the show stopping issue grinds the project to a halt. Finger pointing begins and each team begins trying to dictate their solution. Conflicting solutions are presented to upper management and an executive must step in to resolve the problem. Once the decision has been made, one or both teams feel the decision is biased against them and a negative attitude towards the project begins to develop. While the project might eventually be completed, the end result is probably not what it could be as the amount of physical and emotional energy required to manage the conflict detracts from the end result. So, how do you measure the quality of relationships developed within your team? Well, the good news is you already have a good idea who your top performers and bottom performers are without using a set of metrics to figure it out. However, introducing an analysis of relationship metrics could provide you with new insight into team members. As an executive, your interactions with a manager might be drastically different than how that same manager reacts with others in the management chain. Someone who is completely open and helpful to you might not be so upfront and honest with peers. You might also discover some managers are not held in high regard by their peers, or find that a manager who flies under the radar is one of your best assets. Traditional Relationship Metrics There are traditional methods of gathering relationship metrics that might be appropriate in your environment. The following are some methods you are likely familiar with are helpful in your management’s relationship evaluation. These include anonymous peer surveys, formal peer review, skip level meetings, self reviews, customer surveys, and post project reviews. Some areas to look for when using the above tactics to evaluate your manager’s relationship quality are: Teamwork, leadership skills, technical aptitude, communication, balance decision making, customer satisfaction, ethics, diversity, accountability, recognition, coaching and development skills, and inspiration to others. Social Network Analysis Another method of measuring the relationships your organization has developed with each other and with business units is Social Network Analysis (SNA). While Social Network Analysis is less well known, it can be a valuable tool in evaluating the organizational ties of groups and individuals within the groups. The goal of a Social Network Analysis is to find the structure of an organization which includes information on how organizations are run, how problems are solved, alliances, informal subgroups, and how well individuals achieve their goals. The foundation of SNA is based on viewing social relationships in terms of individuals (nodes) and relationships between individuals (ties). Each node can have many ties of varying types with other nodes in the network. To gather the node and tie information, a set of simple questions is administered to the individuals aimed at identifying their positive and negative connections. Examples are: Who do you look to for advice? With whom do you discuss personal matters? Who do you report too? Who are your most valuable subordinates? From whom must you obtain buy-in? Who is your most difficult contact? After gathering nodes and tie data within an organization, a social diagram is constructed showing a graphical representation of all nodes and associated ties. Once data is gathered, a social diagram can be constructed and analyzed. Valuable information can be found which can lead to a better understanding of who the key players are in your organization, who is holding the organization back, who holds influence with others, how decisions are made, how information flows, who trusts who, and who is in the decision making loop. Another key benefit of Social Network Analysis is that it can reveal how informal networks that are key to an organization’s success can differ from official reporting charts and how actual decision making processes differ from previous assumptions. Organizations who have used Social Network Analysis have reported that they discovered hidden assets that were playing key roles in their team, found individuals viewed as key players that were surprisingly isolated, identified anonymous workers that held powerful influences, and discovered workers who were gatekeepers rather than information sharers. There are many free and commercial software tools available to implement a Social Network Analysis within your IT department such as InFlow, Pajek, Keyplayer, and Netvis. Tools such as these can be valuable in gathering and analyzing data on the quality of relationship development demonstrated by your team. Information on these tools as well as others is readily accessible on the internet. Conclusion While an IT executive might already have an idea of who works well with others and who doesn’t, many do not try to quantify which leaders demonstrate good relationship development. Once you can quantify the relationship results, you can start taking action based on your findings. These results also give you another view into who your top performers are, who to reward, and who you can count on for critical projects. Often, efforts are made to evaluate relationship quality and to try and resolve teamwork issues only when a serious conflict arises. This is the worst time to build relationships as the parties are already in conflict. It is important to implement a relationship evaluation during non confrontational times to increase these skills in your management chain. Since relationship quality is key to an organization’s success, these metrics can provide you with another means to evaluate your organization and how to raise the bar with your customers. Good relationships also foster understanding of other group’s business goals and processes. It is the IT executive’s responsibility to understand the business and how business processes and teams integrate across the enterprise. An effective technology strategy cannot exist without business process understanding and quality relationships with other the business leaders. The best organizations have and retain the best people. By fostering an environment of teamwork built on quality relationships, your top performers will be happier, more productive, and enjoy the workplace. People happy with their environment are more loyal, work harder, and are less likely to look elsewhere for a new opportunity.

This story was authored by a friend who graciously allowed me to post it here. I’ve recently changed my beliefs about work and technology tools (think BlackBerry and PowerPoint), and now believe that their usage needs to be limited in order to develop customer relationships that result in more sales. I’m calling this approach the “New Old School” whereby we learn from our elders on relationship skills. Hopefully sharing it here will benefit you as much as it has me. Like many of you, I’ve always considered myself a technology person. I had one of the first IBM home computers growing up (my father had to take a loan to pay for it) and was one of first to have a laptop and e-mail address. I’m the person family calls for tech support…maybe you can relate? And, this attitude of being a technology leader rolled naturally into my career in high-tech. As a person approaching my mid 30’s, I’ve had the unique opportunity to observe two very different generations at work. Let’s classify these two generations as 50’s and up (usually senior management) and between 38 and 50 years old (usually mid-management). Let me clarify here that this is not an age discrimination thing! I believe age is a state of mind and I’m using age ranges simply to illustrate a point. I will confess here that I have privately made fun of the old school guys in their 50’s and up. I can remember my first trip with the CEO of a past company who didn’t travel with a laptop, did not have a BlackBerry and printed out his airline instructions. I assumed his behavior was purely a relic of the past and that the many mid-managers between me and the CEO who were embracing technology were the future. But, what I’ve come to realize after spending more time with the older C-level crowd is that these folks, who I once thought of as old school, are the best at developing relationships. They have realized that technology tools in the workplace often are a distraction with customer interaction. So, if you think they are technology laggards and relics of the past you are sorely mistaken. I know I was. We’ve become so obsessed with our laptops, BlackBerries, Instant Messaging and PowerPoint that many of us have lost the art of personal relationships. Read the book the World is Flat by Friedman and tell me that our value in the new economy isn’t about quality of relationship development over quantity of e-mails generated. If you want shear quantity, a PhD in India will do it for ¼ the price and probably better. We all hate it yet most of us abuse technology. When is the last time you had a meeting without PowerPoint slides, a BlackBerry or mobile phone? We often hide behind these technology crutches to purely repeat information off a slide instead of stopping to understand what real problems our customer and partners are experiencing. With this said, obviously the best combination is being technically astute without ever compromising your relationship building skills. But, we’ve erred too far on the side of technology and we need to reclaim our lives. So, here are my personal pledges that may give you some ideas- 1. There is something about the morning time. Ever notice how the older generation enjoys their mornings? I’m going to get up early and reclaim the morning before plugging-in and starting the craziness of the day. I’m going to read the paper, write, plan out the day or perhaps read a classic book by Dale Carnegie (more on Dale later). The morning time is going to be my time again. 2. When visiting a customer, I’m not going to bring a laptop or BlackBerry; they are staying in the car or at home. Here’s what I’ve learned, if you don’t know what you are talking about well enough to do it without slides, you are just regurgitating information. My time with customers and partners will be uninterrupted and will use natural ways of communicating…not slides. 3. I’m going to start admitting once a day that I don’t know something. I’ve been in meetings where a new term will be used and nobody asks what it means. Ever notice many of the older generation folks aren’t afraid to ask: What the hell you are talking about? I’m going to stop acting like I know every technology term and when it’s worth my time to know it I am going to ask: What the hell you are talking about and why does it matter? 4. Speaking of why it matters, I’m going to ask why a lot more. I’ve noticed that good relationship people ask why a lot. If someone tries to stump me with a technology question I’m going to say “I don’t know what that means (see #3) but why do you want to know that?” With all the information available someone in the room will always know more than me. I am going to stop killing myself pretending to know more than the customer and instead will ask “why do you want to know this” and “why will this help you?” 5. I’m going to turn off my phone and shut down my e-mail for at least an hour during every workday to focus on important tasks. I’ve already been amazed at how much more productive I am. I’ve also been surprised how much this throws off my colleagues. It’s pure liberation. 6. Lastly, I’m going to send a handwritten note to someone every month. Have you gotten a handwritten note lately? Probably not, yet I bet you can remember the last one you did receive. My last one came from an old boss and I can almost tell you every word from memory and know exactly where it is at now. How many e-mails can you say that about? Handwriting is a lost art and it’s the essence of personal communication and relationships. Here is what I believe you will find without the distractions and crutches of modern technology - you will become a better customer relationship manager and will gain more business as a result. I mentioned Dale Carnegie before and I’m rededicating myself to study “How to Win Friends and Influence People” more often. I’m convinced the only way to do the things Carnegie talks about is by removing technology distractions. The next time you get a chance, thank an old-school person for the education…they offer a lot to learn. -JR note from galt: There are good management lessons to be learned here. The qualities of relationship building, listening, taking valuable lessons from others, and learning to ask why are all key to building your management skills and interacting with customers, peers, bosses, and subordinates. If you wish to contact the original author, please send me an email (can be found on Contact page) and I will forward it on.