Author Archives: Didier

International IT market is resisting the downturn

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via EITO

Despite the weakness in the international economy, demand for information technology (IT) will continue to increase in the coming year. According to the new forecast of the international market research institute EITO, turnover of computers, software and IT services in Western Europe will increase by 2 percent in 2009, to a round 315 billion Euro. “IT expenditure of businesses will continue to grow even in an economic recession”, said EITO chairman Bruno Lamborghini. “Information technology is of strategic importance for companies in a crisis situation because it makes operations more efficient and more economic.” Increasing demand for IT was also to be expected from contractors working in the public sector, where investment has limited dependence on economic fluctuations. According to the latest forecast, providers of software and IT services in Western Europe will achieve a substantial increase in turnover of 3.2 percent in the coming year, to 228 billion. In comparison, manufacturers of IT hardware are facing a loss of 1.3 percent, to 87 billion Euro.

The EITO market researchers are expecting development of the IT market in Western Europe, which includes the 15 core countries of the EU with the addition of Switzerland and Norway, to be more robust than in the USA. IT turnover in the United States is forecast to grow by 0.8 percent to 347 billion Euro. Before the global financial crisis became more acute, EITO was assuming growth of the IT market at a level of 4.4 percent in the USA.

The global IT market for the year 2009 will grow, according to the EITO forecast, by 2.7 percent to 983 billion Euro. As in Europe, suppliers of software and IT services around the world are growing particularly strongly. Their turnover world-wide is forecast to grow by 3.4 percent to 677 billion Euro in the coming year. The hardware market is increasing by 1.3 percent to 305 billion Euro. The driving forces are emerging markets like China, India and Russia, which still have some ground to make up in developing their IT infrastructure.

So, summarized, concerning turnover forecast for 2009

  • Worldwide:
    • Overall: +2.7%
    • Software and IT services: +3.4%
    • IT Hardware: +1.3%
  • Western Europe (15 EU countries, Switzerland, Norway)
    • Overall: +2.0%
    • Software and IT services: +3.2%
    • IT Hardware: –1.3%
  • USA:
    • Overall: +0.8%
  • Western Europe more robust than in the USA
  • Driving forces internationally: China, India, Russia (generally speaking: emerging markets)

Innoveo – A real life example of productive SOA solutions

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soa for dummies

Two years ago a first version of the publication “Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies” has been published. Therein our reference customer, the Helvetia Insurance Group, was mentioned together with the solution we have successfully put in place for them.

In the second, reviewed edition, Innoveo has been dedicated again one full chapter of the book. Still our solution is considered to be a practical, state of the art example of how SOA can work in real life, creating both, an enhanced efficiency and cost optimization on the IT side as well as real business benefits on the customer side.

We are proud of having been selected by Judith Hurwitz for her book and we wish Judith again an amazing success with this new publication.

Find more information about the book on Judith Hurwitz’s Weblog. Judith is one of the authors and we’ve had the pleasure to be directly in contact with her to discuss the content and the progresses we’ve made in the time between the first and the second edition.

You can order the book at Amazon.com.

Get additional information about our consulting services and our insurance frontend solution Innoveo Skye™ by visiting our company website.

cross-posted as Innoveo News.

Defining goals is a pain in the neck, BUT…

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via Seth Godin

A good one, to (re)start properly the new year with some inspiring quotes from Seth!

Having goals is a pain in the neck.

If you don’t have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal…) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don’t have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don’t have a goal you don’t need nearly as many excuses, either.

Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.

The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.

Vincent Laforet is just great!

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via Marc Silber

Marc Silber, who is regularly bringing very interesting information and inputs concerning photography and visuals (his blog, his portfolio, his press-room), has posted a link to a video from Vincent Laforet.

I haven’t known the work of Vincent before and … what for a visual shock! This is a MUST-HAVE-SEEN to my mind. Very innovative, fresh, emotional, and just beautiful at the end.

“Waiting for the swell”

 

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

“Taking off”

 

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

Who is Vincent Laforet

 

From his blog, impressive bio!

Vincent Laforet is a New York based commercial and editorial photographer who is regularly commissioned to work on a variety of fine art, advertising, corporate and editorial projects. His approach to aerial photography has been singled out as one of the most unique and interpretive amongst photographers today.

At the age of 33, his work has been published in most major publications around the world and he has been sent on assignment by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, and Life Magazine. In 2006, Laforet modified his staff position at The New York Times to become The Times’ first national contract photographer. 

Vincent’s fine art prints are exhibited in galleries internationally including the International Center of Photography in New York City, and Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, and are part of numerous private collections.

Vincent was recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine in 2005 and was named one of the “30 photographers to watch under 30″ by PDN in 2002. He and four other photographers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for their post-9/11 coverage overseas in 2002. His work has been recognized in the Communication Arts Annual, PDN Annual, The SPD Magazine Cover of the Year, The World Press Photo Awards, The Pictures of the Year Competition, The Overseas Press Club, The National Headliners Awards, The Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Vincent is a Canon Explorer of Light and Canon Printmaster and serves as consultant to companies such as Apple, Bogen, Lexar, and X-Rite.  He and his work have been profiled on CNN and Good Morning America.

Vincent has been invited as a keynote speaker by a variety of organizations and universities from around the world. He has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the International Center of Photography. Vincent is represented by the Stockland Martel Agency. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, Amber, and son, Noah.

What you should look at

 

A lot of great visual material are available online on the portfolio website of Vincent Laforet.

Have a look, for example, at the Paniolo cowboys Hawaii in the Adventure section, or at the Golf digest in the Sports section.

Firefox Add-on – ScrapBook

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I am not using so many Firefox Add-ons but this one – ScrapBook – is just great!

You can download it here.

What is ScrapBook

ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support.

Functionalities

Major features are:

Good tutorial here (pdf, 692KB)

Screenshot

 

scrapbook

HD Video from Saint Barth

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I have published my first HD video (720p, i.e. a 1280×720 resolution) on SmugMug, with our last Saint Barth winter break in February 2008 as “topic”. I will continue to regularly publish some short sessions about this travel in the coming time.

The embedded version below is the so-called DVD version (640×480 resolution).

You may like to have a look at the HD version here.

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 as a video editing software (yes, I have a license…) and my Sony Handycam HDR-HC3.

The music used to illustrate the video is coming from ccMixter.org, very nice source for good-quality Creative Commons licensed tracks!

All the best for 2009!

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Some thoughts concerning 2008+ and wishes for 2009.

Looking back to … 2008+

Actually, 2008 started for me already in 2007 :-)

Difficult to make the cut in January 2008, as we have started Innoveo in October 2007…

So, below, some pictures which are representing my 2008+, a mix of private and professional stuff, as usual.

And, without explanations, for sure ;-)

All in all, 2008 was again extremely “different” and “stable”.

  • Different, because I could learn a lot of new stuff, a bit more about myself, meet a huge amount of persons, very smart and people-oriented. A lot of new experiences, in so many different fields, wow :-) And, on top, a strong and deep feeling of being very lucky to be able to lead our own company with Nick . Different also, because it is the first time that I feel so clearly the quite high pressure, even positive, of leading a company and being “responsible” for this company!
  • Stable, because I had the chance, first, to work with and for the same great people! I like very much this ecosystem! Stable, secondly, because my family and private life is solid, full of happiness and great private moments. I don’t like stability, excepted in these two fields ;-)

What about 2009?

Looks interesting, isn’t it? As during all the downturn and crisis time, we will all have our ups and downs.

Hopefully with more “ups”, and not too deep “downs”!

Flexibility will be essential, as speed.

I wish you and your beloved ones all the best for the exciting coming year, a lot of fun, good wines and meals (!), success in your new business(es), and a lot of new learnings!

And keep dreaming :-)

Take care, Didier

[click on the calendar-zone to enlarge]

2007-2008

Lake Wobegon effect

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via vowe

We all have – at least one time ;-) – the impression that we are delivering better outcome/results/outputs than the “average”. At work, during our education, by making sports, etc.

I haven’t know, as Volker, that this kind of positive illusion or overestimating was studied and has a name. Actually it is called the “lake Wobegon” effect. Have a look at the Wikipedia’s description.

The Lake Wobegon effect designates either: the human tendency to overestimate one’s achievements and capabilities in relation to others (in academic sources this is more usually called the above average effect or the better-than-average effect); or the finding that in many educational tests a vast majority of participants achieve results above the norm.

It is named for the fictional town of Lake Wobegon from the radio series A Prairie Home Companion, where, according to the presenter, Garrison Keillor, “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” […]

The above average effect or better-than-average effect is one kind of positive illusion. It describes the tendency for people to evaluate themselves as ‘better than average’ on desirable skills, characteristics or behaviors. It is a characteristic bias of social comparison where people usually compare themselves to an unspecified peer and, despite the mathematical odds, en masse judge themselves to be better than their average peer.

I am learning every day! Or is that also a “lake Wobegon effect”?

;-)

My new lens: Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

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canon EFS 28 200

I am using a Canon EOS 20D since April 2005 (!) with 2 lenses:

I have taken a majority of my pictures with the 17-40mm, which is really very nice. Now, for travelling, and specially when you are in a “non-safe” atmosphere (humidity, dust, sand, etc.), it is quite difficult to change your lens. Without speaking about the transport ;-)

Canon has released this autumn a new lens, which is to my mind the “perfect” compromise between an ultrawide-angle and a zoom lens, the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, with Image Stabilization, but without the USM (Ultra Sonic Motor). Perfect compromise for the usage means also automatically … some optical compromises! Which “forces” me to start to use a “post-production” software, to be able to correct some very visible optical aberrations (barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, softness, etc.) with this lens. I am using DxO Optics Pro, but I will talk about that in a coming post!

Good summary from Wikipedia

Reviews indicate that the 18-200 does not compare to the 28-300L in terms of image quality, though this is understandable since the latter is priced much higher, due to it belonging to the L-series line. Most reviewers have criticised the lens for high levels of barrel distortion at the wide end, and chromatic aberration and softness evident at all focal lengths and apertures. The lack of an UltraSonic Motor has also been noted by reviewers, and along with the 18-55 IS has given rise to concerns that Canon may be moving towards removing USM from their lower-end lenses. It has generally been rated higher than Sigma and Tamron’s offerings however, and has gotten generally positive reviews with the caveat that it is designed for convenience rather than image quality.

Some detailed reviews

Forget the traditional 4 “P”s!

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via Seth Godin

Seth is, as usual, suggesting a new “out-of-the-box” structure to represent the different marketing elements and mechanisms. So, forget the  traditional 4 “P”s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) coming from the commonly accepted definition of Marketing Mix (Jerome McCarthy). For Seth, we should have a look at 5 elements:

five marketing blocks
© Seth Godin

So now, let’s have a look at the definition of these 5 elements:

  • DATA is observational. […] Data is powerful, overlooked and sometimes mistaken for boring. You don’t have to understand the why, you merely need to know the what.
  • STORIES define everything you say and do. The product has a myth, the service has a legend. […]
  • PRODUCTS (and services) are physical manifestations of the story. […]
  • INTERACTIONS are all the tactics the marketer uses to actually touch the prospect or customer. […]
  • CONNECTION is the highest level of enlightenment, the end goal. Connection between you and the customer, surely, but mostly connection between customers. Great marketers create bands of brothers, tribes of people who wish each other well and want to belong.

Interesting, isn’t it? Try to have a look at your marketing reality through this new prism.

Three essential questions you can ask yourself:

  • Does this interaction lead to connections?
  • Do our products support our story?
  • Is the story pulling in numbers that demonstrate that it’s working?

I like Seth Godin exactly for this kind of disruptive inputs ;-)