Businessweek: The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit

This week’s cover of Businesweek appears to triumphantly announce Apple, Inc.’s comeback (sort of) into the enterprise, even if Apple isn’t actually marketing to that sector.

For Mac afficionados, this is a big change from Businesweek’s former pronunciation of near-death (see The Fall of An American Icon, from 1996, or the Apple Death Knell Counter from Mac Observer).

Okay, so Apple is back; however, the opportunity here for enterprise IT is not so much to bring on a new platform, it’s to explore more thoroughly the idea of “employee asset ownership.” I didn’t find much searching for this idea on Google (maybe there’s a more official name for this? If there is, please add it in your comments), except that a few companies like BP and Unisys are experimenting with it.


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Quite possibly.

I didn’t catch the iPhone SDK launch right on March 6, but I did watch it a few days later, and it’s very impressive. It is worth a watch, especially with regard to the possibilities in verticals such as health care. I have met many physicians in the past 6 months who have told me, “I will get an iPhone when…” I think the “when” has been answered. Possibilities such as secure physician-patient communication and patient activity monitoring with direct connect to electronic health records are now possible.

It was interesting to see this right after the Health2.0 Conference, to be sure.

Not to mention that the iPhone is now enterprise-worthy….

Apple Developer Connection - iPhone Dev Center - iPhone Developer Program

February 4th through February 6th:

• DC Moves for Safer Sidewalks - Get There - Washington government takes a step toward promoting walkability. Sidewalks stay open for business.Walkers rejoice!
• Apple //c - a photoset on Flickr - The OOB experience of an unopened AppleIIc computer. Remember when technology was fun? It still is. And I never even learned to program in Pascal.
• Ryanair’s Changing Altitude - Efficient cost management and charging for everything keeps margins high at RyanAir - a great example of “copy how we think” in terms of being like Southwest
• Running a hospital: More on fetching and work-arounds - BIDMC launches an improvement methodology called SPIRIT. Looks like it’s at least partially based on LEAN?
• The Health Care Blog: Bad Medicine: How The AMA Undermined Primary Care in America - Brian Klepper - Analysis of RBRVS and impact on primary care.
• The ethics of CEO blogging - Nice discussion from Paul Levy about the approach that a CEO takes to blogging. I’m in support!
• Insurers Begin To Reimburse for Online Visits, Concerns Remain - Nice profile of Kaiser Permanente’s program.
• Marriot Rolls Out Web-Based PHR System to Employees Nationwide - iHealthBeat - An employer-sponsored PHR. Will the lack of connection to the health care team be an issue?
• KUOW: Program Archive: Patient Safety, January, 2008 - Dr. Matt Handley, from Group Health Cooperative, is featured
• Best Companies 2008 - FORTUNE Magazine’s Top 100 Employers to Work For - The 2008 list is out. From an HR/Leadership perspective, it is interesting to look at some of the most important qualifications for being on the list, such as support for diversity.

This is my iPhone 1.1.3 edition blog post. The upgrade went flawlessly. I think this is a good time to reflect on how things are going in terms of being my own CIO. Green light here. I think technology is lightweight and standards based enough that it is enjoyable to e-mail, calendar, and content manage with a few simple tools that sync well with each other, in fixed locations and on the go. The software lineup I mentioned in my first post has not changed - it has only gotten better. Data detectors in Leopard work amazingly well and are a huge time saver. I recalled about 2 years ago that I could look down at my Macintosh dock and find all 4 Microsoft Office apps running on it. Since this experience, there usually aren’t any, as they have been handily replaced by Mail, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. This is not to say that I have a goal of replacing Microsoft apps on my desktop. I am really looking forward to purchasing Office 2008 and seeing what it has to offer. The Macintosh Business Unit there always does a great job with their products and are a good example of the benefit of having an in house innovation unit.

All of that aside, the next question for me has to be - how to get this lightweight technology into the enterprise, because this is what people are learning outside of work. Why not make it what they use at work? What is the cost of acquiring and supporting the monolithic suite of applications that most enterprises use? This is especially relevant for the next generation of leaders and staff (GenX and Y). Are there examples of CIO’s out there who are pioneering in this regard. Worthy of exploration…

Links for January 14-15:

• Flickr DNA: Discover someone new. Rediscover someone anew. - Another interesting social networking app based on Flickr
• flickr graph - marcos weskamp - A great visualization of a social network, this time using Flickr. This could be very useful in the enterprise - “Who is good at X?”
• The 2007 Medical Weblog Awards Nominees - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com - As the title says. The ranks are growing bigger…
• Is Enterprise 2.0 Bad for Business? - Yahoo! News - Lotus Notes the same as a Wiki? I don’t tihnk so….the issue is about lightweight technology that’s standards based and easy to deploy. This is what the enterprise needs.
• Report: EMI Records To Cut Workforce By 36% -
• Health Beat: Who Decides How Much Specialists Are Paid? - Historical commentary on RBRVS and its update committee. It would be interesting to see possible solutions proposed to support a more patient-centered health care world.
• PR Newswire - Healthcare/Hospitals News - Regence members in the Pacific Northwest to be able to provide feedback on their experience with providers to each other. Does this need to sit within the health plan’s web site, though?
• Report lauds VA’s focus on quality care, health IT -

I love this new ad, because it’s a bit of a metaphor for generational change and innovation within organizations. Sometimes it feels that innovators are moving at 10 times the pace of the normal beat of things. The joy of creating change is to present the face that is going at the same beat or just slightly faster, so others can join in.

Also, on the eve of MacWorld, I dug out one of my favorite quotes, from 2006:

“We have a lot of health-care customers and maybe 1 percent of a company’s research department is on Macs but they have 99 percent of the influence.” - Jim Murphy, practice manager for Strategic Computer Solutions, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based IBM partner.

Original source for the ad can be found here.

• RSS Web 2.0 Suite for Individuals - NewsGator - Big news - FeedDeemon and NetNewsWire are now FREE. RSS readers can now go mainstream. Highly recommended.
• Seth’s Blog: Music lessons - Important lessons, from one industry to perhaps many others
• Mamaherb ? What actually works in natural health - Social networking meets word of mouth for herbal treatments
• Computerworld: Can Macs conquer the enterprise? The time is ripe … - 28% of IT managers say they will migrate to Macs instead of Vista. Wow.

One of my interests in improving the affordability of health care and process transformation is in the affordability of health information technology. With that in mind, I am starting a link cloud for items concerning Apple, Inc., products in enterprise computing environments. Feel free to subscribe via RSS or comment here with additional resources/information.

December 19th through December 21st:

• YouTube - CNBC’s graphics SAN using Apple XServe - CNBC adopts Apple technology for enterprise storage
• MacDailyNews - U.S. Army enlists Apple Mac for increased security - The Army is making it easier to adopt Macs
• Web 3.0 and medicine — Giustini 335 (7633): 1273 — BMJ - Hope that web 3.0 will return us to “time honoured principles of the (medical library) profession.” I worry about statements like that, without any disrespect to librarians, which I am a huge fan of.
• Pegasystems offers PLM process framework - Computer Business Review - Noted: Group Health as an early adopter
• Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine | Fix This Mess - More on where we came from, including the history of Insurance.