Posts by Ian Campbell

We’ve all heard the vision of the smart refrigerator that orders milk when you are running low. Or the car that finds the nearest parking spot in a busy lot. The test device that not only alerts a diabetic if blood sugar is low, but also notifies the doctor. The app that monitors vibrations to…

I’ve learned over the years that if I want to get my daughter’s attention, I should text her. While for my generation, a phone call is the go-to medium for an issue that is immediate and important, Millennials are all about digital channels. They rarely answer their phones and almost never listen to voicemail, but…

Step right up! Gather round and see the latest technology to dazzle and amaze you. Tech industry marketers have gone so far over the top lately that they’ve become the snake oil salespeople of our time. I understand the need to show unique differentiation, but so many marketing claims now are wildly exaggerated and downright…

The first week of the year is all about gadgets. Forget about the tech toys you just got for the holidays. They are already yesterday’s news. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas has emerged as the debutante ball for every new device, game and even tech concept to delight the masses. And while CES has…

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The problem with quotes found on the Internet is that they are often not true.” At least according to a popular meme that is making the rounds on social media. It’s a humorous way to illustrate how easy it is to circulate information now. Everyone is a publisher these days and…

Technology vendors love to focus on functionality. It’s the reason they develop solutions in the first place. Plus it’s easy to highlight unique features and draw a comparison to offerings from competitors. They feel most comfortable selling a ‘better,’ ‘faster,’ ‘leading,’ ‘top,’ ‘industry-leading’ widget. But what good is better functionality if the right people are…

We’ve heard a great deal about the acceleration of the software development cycle recently and the challenges it poses for developers. Once lengthy cycles have now been compressed to near real-time. One false move and a developer could lose significant ground – even get knocked out of the race. There has been less of a…

Have you ever heard of Hans Hut? No? He predicted the world would end on May 28, 1528. Then there is that group of English astronomers that predicted a London flood on February 1, 1524 to start the apocalypse. I’m not sure anyone remembers their names. But we all remember their contemporary, Nostradamus. The thing…

I decided to kick back and watch a movie on a recent international flight. It was an action film with your typical attention-grabbing big opening, over-the-top special effects and all. Visually stunning, but just as I was settling in for what promised to be a fun flick, the dialogue began … in French. I watched…

Dell’s acquisition of EMC is causing many in the Boston area to lament the loss of our tech sway. While that deal might signify the end of big iron for the area, Boston is actually re-inventing itself as a new tech leader. And it’s all about the web, mobile tech and vertical solutions. Remember that…

At face value, tech spending for 2016 is poised to remain flat., At least if you pay attention to several recent industry reports that predict little to no increase in IT capital expenditure for next year. That might be important information for an overall economic forecast, but it doesn’t give the full picture of what’s…

For more than a decade, we’ve seen the cloud transform nearly every enterprise software offering with the promise of reducing costs. And the cloud has significantly cut upfront capital investments, initial consulting and on-going personnel costs for the vast majority of solutions. From CRM and ERP to back office and even supply chain apps, the…

The security market is an interesting area for Nucleus. We’re a strongly value-focused firm and security has more of a panic and fear sales strategy than a measured value strategy. I think that’s why we’ve found security initiatives are more often reactive to news headlines than a strategic corporate foundation with a long-term plan. Chief…

While some companies are better than others at talent management, for many it is a game of defense. It becomes a top priority when a superstar is about to leave the company. Or when a superstar does actually move on, leaving a void to be filled. To be fair, most companies do conduct regular performance…

At face value, CRM is not the exciting and vibrant industry it was even just a few years ago. The very industry that was first to adopt the Software-as-a-Service model and blaze the trail for the cloud seems to be stagnant lately. In our latest Technology Value Matrix for CRM, we see some vendors moving up,…

“Anything you say can and will be used against you.” It’s a familiar phrase we often here on police dramas. It’s also the best advice I’ve heard yet concerning data on the Internet. We’ve seen large businesses from TJ Maxx and Target to JP Morgan Chase and Anthem suffer massive data breaches. Even the US…

Google has been an incubator for clever ideas for many years. A better search engine soon led to innovative advertising, new business applications and email. Then the company got really ambitious with Android, self-driving cars, glucose detecting contact lenses, remote home thermostats, virtual reality devices, hover boards, an elevator to space and teleportation technology. Is…

I learned at a young age that being good in grade school to earn a gold star wasn’t really worth it. Given the fun I had cracking jokes, passing notes, and in general being disruptive, earning a shiny sticker on a chart was not much of a positive incentive. I took the same attitude toward…

Customizing applications has not been for the faint of heart. The process has been quite challenging and expensive. Projects typically go way over on time-to-delivery and budget with no guarantee of success. As a result, many businesses have avoided customization to simply ‘make do’ with what’s available off the shelf. That complacency is about to…

Microsoft pulled the plug on its Nokia acquisition last week, announcing a $7.6 billion write off on the mobile phone unit and a round of 7,800 layoffs. That’s nearly 7 percent of Microsoft’s global workforce. This is not a mere retreat, but a full surrender. Unfortunately, this all falls on current CEO Satya Nadella, who…