Big Data means Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

English: A variety of laptops, smartphones, tablets and ebook readers arranged. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently posted about the emergence of “Big Data” (access to large amounts of raw data to more and more users), and the logical extension is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

BYOD means, simply, that networks are extended their use to devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) that are not explicitly provided by an employer.  So, in addition to logging on to work through the company-issued laptop, you may also check your work e-mail on your smart-phone.  You may also access your work files from your personal iPad.

As a trend, as the charts below indicate, worker-supplied equipment is growing.  My forecast will be that a company-supplied device will become a “perk” at the more progressive companies while others will demand workers provide their own means of doing their jobs.  The blue-collar work structure of “bring your own tools” extends to eForce.

Bring Your Own Electronic Tools to Work

Related articles

• Look at Risk Before Leaping Into BYOD, Report Cautions (cio.com)
• What Is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)? (androidgadgets.co.uk)
• Dont BYOD (dealarchitect.typepad.com)
• BYOD 101: Getting user buy-in (pcadvisor.co.uk)
• Government approves BYOD for public sector staff (computerweekly.com)
• Managing A More Efficient And Effective BYOD Workplace (understandingecommerce.com)

Big Data into Decisions

I am a big fan of infographics.  They say a lot in a short time.  SAP AG has published the following here, which provides a challenging view of using “Big Data” (large amounts of raw data pushed through an analytics application) to drive decisions.

Big Data into Decisions

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Updated experience and work samples pages

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Look up and you should notice the two new pages to the blog. I have added my resume, both short and long as well as samples of some of the work I have produced in the past.

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Top 5 Questions to ask BEFORE you hire your training consultant

Image via Wikipedia

As a training manager (or a project manager in charge of the training), you will be faced with the prospect of hiring an internal team, hiring a consulting group, or a mix of both.  As you begin down the road to training development/delivery, here are five key elements that you will want to keep in mind in choosing your training strategy:

1. Who will deliver the training?

1. Insourcing—will it be your own employees (often referred to as Subject Matter Experts–SME’s–or, more informally, “volunteers”).  If so, then will your strategy need to include a Train-the-trainer session.
2. Outsourcing—will you be hiring an outside firm to deliver the stand-up training?  If so, what are the experiences, qualifications, and approach to training of the instructors?  Will you, as the client, have veto power over an instructor?

2. Who will develop the training?

1. Insourcing—will your employees have the necessary technical/educational resources to achieve the desired project?  Will their be a need to update/upgrade their skills with some upfront technical training of their own—for a Content Management program, for example—or a specifically desired course development software (Lectora, Camtasia, etc.)
2. Contractor—will they bring their own laptops or will you need to provide (different IT set-ups prefer different approaches).  Are their additional software licenses you will need to include into the budget to accommodate them?

3. Who will design the training approach?

1. Whether your project is a global ERP implementation, incorporating multiple languages, cultures, business sectors, etc, or just all of the receiving personnel at plant 6, you will need to have a specific, engaged approach to providing those users with specific, applicable training.
2. Is there someone in-house that can provide this with a professional level of insight into adult learning methods and practices?   Does this personal/department have the resources to dedicate to the life of the project?
3. If you go with an outside firm, do they tailor their approach?  Do they customize for each client, or do they provide a one-size fits all approach—especially important if they also sell a “tool” pack (which usually means that they offer fairly limited customization).

4. Who will be in charge of the training portion of the project?

1. If internal, what is the reporting structure?  Will the internal manager be responsible for any/all of the outside resources?
2. If external, how much veto power will be shared with an internal contact/counterpart?  How much leverage will the project manager have, ultimately, over the project plan, deliverables and timelines?

5. What are the checks that need to be/should be put into place?

1. For your end-users
   1. Are there certain regulatory requirements that need to be held in compliance, measured by an outside authority, to which your training needs to be held up against?
   2. Will there need to be a metric against which you will need to report proficiency/completeness of training?
2. For your trainers
   1. How will they handle scheduling?
   2. How will they handle accounting for attendance/competency/course evaluations?
3. For your stakeholders
   1. How will you report against progress, success?
   2. How will you demonstrate accountability?

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You should give Darth Vader a pacemaker

David Prowse as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I often teach subjects that are not, in themselves, very interesting at all.  For example, my last client needed to train temp workers to enter patient information into their new ERP system.  Typing in data from a paper into a computer is not fun.  It becomes tedious and mind-boring.

So, when faced with such challenges, I craft creative examples.  In this instance, I gave Darth Vader a pacemaker.  I gave one to George Bush and Obama as well (Cheney already had one).

By making my example data engaging, I hoped to make the data come, as it were, a little more alive to the students (whose status as temps meant they had even less interest than usual).

So, when faced with a rote or boring task, inject some fun.  Be creative.  Give Darth Vader a heart transplant.

 

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Inclusive rates seem like a good idea

I function in a very specialized field–developing training materials for large-scale ERP implementations.  And I have noticed a trend of late to only offer inclusive rates to consultants.

Money (Photo credit: Tax Credits)

While I realize the down economy, I see this as short-sighted. If your needs include experience/talent that is specialized, looking only to the local talent pool will be, in the short term, severely limiting.  That is, you may pass this small budget hump, but your overall structure, product, training method, etc. will very likely take a direct and strong hit.  You are, in essence, banking on having the money later to fix the problems you are making today.

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WIKIs in Training

Image via Wikipedia

WIKIs have been available for a couple of years for anyone with a hosting account.  That is, you can download the wiki software and begin pluggin away at building your own world of inter-referred documents.

As I trainer, I don’t see these used enough.  I consult with large-scale SAP (an ERP) training projects, and I have yet to see one use a wiki as part of their post-go live strategy (I have yet to see a valid post-go life strategy, but that is another post).

With a wiki (SharePoint is a form), a user (super-user, SME, etc.) would be able to create a posting (describe the SAP receiving process), possibly culled directly from the training documents–which were probably culled, themselves, from the documentation of the project (BPPs, etc.).  The added benefit if putting these items on an intranet is that the user community can, with user-IDs, edit, update and maintain these documents.

Why aren’t you using one?

Lifelong Learning: the Introduction to Lori Reed

Image via Wikipedia

In my quest to work through the 23 new web 2.0 things, I have started with the general introduction to the concept of Lifelong Learning.  The “course” links to an Articulate-produced, e-learning module/course designed by Lori Reed, whose site indicates:

My name is Lori Reed. I’m the Employee Learning & Development Coordinator for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC)*

Hi Lori.  Nice to meet you.

The Lifelong Learning course introduces the concept that adults do not stop learning after leaving secondary school–or even college–for that matter.  In fact, learning occurs throughout ones life.  It seems simple enough of a concept to be blatantly evident, but there it is.  The courselet encourages the student to break free and take charge of her own lifelong learning by developing a plan.

Might I offer a suggestion?  Since this seems to be a municipal library, Lori, and you might not have a full, bevvy of grad students to act as research assistants, could you offer courselets on very basic tools?  My students, of all ages have liked the following “courses” at their libraries, and I wish my local library had some of these courses:

• How to Find the Book  You Want Online:  Ways to Search Our Database to Find What You Want to Read (I love to look for books on-line, from the comfort of my armchair, to “peruse the stacks” while I am working on-line.  How might I do this at your library?)

• Order Your Book Through Inter-library Loan From Home:  Steps to Place Your Own Inter-library Loan Request (I might not want to fill out a piece of paper every time I want to order a book from another library, and your library might not want to process every request that can be done on-line.  Is there an easy way for me to request a book through my local library from home?)

• Quick Tutorial for the Research Paper:  How to Cite Your Sources (Okay, I admit this might be the teacher speaking, but starting in the 5th and 6th grades, local school children here start doing research papers.  Their first introduction to citing research starts here, but it also helps high school and university students to have a tutorial like this.  At one of the universities I worked for, the librarians would add this to my class webpage, and it was the most frequently read topic on the site.)

Learning 2.0 – 23 Things

Image via Wikipedia

Learning 2.0 – 23 Things.

I stumbled across this mini-course, made in Blogger, which purports to teach the user 23 new and cool things about the web in as many weeks (perhaps sooner).

I am going to try it out.

The Role of Corporate Training: Economic Downturn Edition

Image via Wikipedia

[Thanks to Will Thalheimer for the heads up]

With the Dow Jones half of what it was a year ago, millions in mortgage default, GM nearly bankrupt (as its former parts division Delphi has been for two years) and seemingly countless millions of taxpayer dollars shoring up multinational banks, Eric Sheperd, CEO of QuestionMark, asks (and by extension implicates)

As Learning and Assessment Professionals What Could We Have Done to Prevent the Financial Crisis

Shepherd goes on to question whether adequate and proper training could have prevented the current situation.  Here is a sampling:

…

Where were our regulators?  Did they know what they were meant to be doing? Were they assessed?

…

Should there have been more effective learning around these financial instruments?

All of which goes to his main point:

At this year’s User Conference I’d love to learn what we could have done to prevent the unethical/uneducated behaviors and questionable practices that led us on this journey of mass financial destruction not to agonize over what has happened but to help our profession be a part of the solution (emphasis mine).

A couple of key points, though, to Shepherd’s line of questioning:

• Deregulation, letting people do more without oversight, is, by definition, allowing a “lack of training”
• It was not for a lack of adequate and timely training that mortgage-backed securities failed…it was because of greed and lack of regulation (see above point)

Shepherd, as CEO, does, though, see the near-future prospects of increased regulation and its co-committant call for training and oversight.  I think, instead of furthering helpful debate, he is seeking coporate positioning.