|
Interview between Sean Breen and Troy Pomroy Editor's note: The following is the transcription of an ICQ interview held November 28. Sean Breen is the Chief Technical Officer and one of the principle founders of Q-Industries in Washington, DC. The following is an ICQ interview with him from November 28. You can find a paper written by him in the AOK White Papers section. AOK- For people unfamiliar with your business briefly explain for me what does Q-industries does? SB- Q-Industries is a privately held Washington, DC-based technology firm specializing in "open source" projects. They provide established businesses, as well as start-ups with rapid product development and product launch capabilities, giving their customers open code across the board (OS, application and presentation layers). Other aspects of Q's expertise include
eBusiness realization, Chief Technology representation, partial
incubation, and capital acquisition. From the investor standpoint,
Q offers due-diligence, product feasibility, and IV&V services. SB- Good question: Basically, proposals fall into two groups: (1) poor problem description or (2) technology constrictive. The "poor problem description" proposals generally spend too little time discussing the actually problems that the group is trying to solve. In my view the best way to get a good proposal response is to very carefully talk about the problems that you are trying to solve, and give a history of the problem. Technology is used to solve problems; thus the better understanding that a firm such as mine has of the problem, the better chance that the technology implemented will actually solve the problem. The second group ("technology restrictive") occurs when there is good discussion of the problem in the proposal, but the proposal also restricts the type of technology used; usually for no reason other the preference. Remember, firms such as mine use technology to solve problems. If the "solution" is already presupposed, then the bidding firm's ability to best address the problem is very limited. The result is usually a sub-standard product, simply because the proposal presupposed the answer. Don't get me wrong, I understand IT's need for standards, but when trying to get best solution, don't hamstring a firm -- let them explain why they think their solution is the best and force them to explain how it will integrate into a pre-existing environment. In sum, spend as much time in your proposal trying to talk about the problem, the history of the problem and what you have tried the in past of solve the problem. Leave the technology "heavy lifting" up to the firm bidding for the proposal. AOK- You mention that "Technology is used to solve problems." What role does existing office process and/or office culture play in your technology solutions?...What key factors drive your recommendations outside of the proposal? SB- Existing office process and office culture play a very important role. These factors are critical to the success of any technology that must be incorporated into a working environment. Each solution must envelope and make use of existing factors. These factors can be technological, but also human factors. It is good to note two axioms of Information Technology: (1) never try to automate a manual system that does not work and (2) never automate for the sake of automation. If you don't have a very clear picture of the problems you are trying to solve and don't have a matrix by which to measure a successful system, then don't try to automate it. AOK- Last question...What are the top three technologies that are going to impact you and your clients in the next three years and why? SB- (1) Open Source (2) XML and (3) WAP. (1) Open Source is more of a philosophy then a technology. Open Source provides for (a) very quick development using Internet based collaboration systems, (b) all source code (the code that makes the system work) is available for modification; thus bugs are found and fixed very quickly and you are not locked into a proprietary solution. I have a white paper (I'll post it at www.kwork.org -AOK) that explains Open Source. (2) XML -- (eXtensible Markup Language) will change the data "plumbing" behind almost every system on the Internet. Currently, data exchanged by most systems is done in any number of proprietary formats, which makes updating and extending these systems very cumbersome and expensive. XML is a protocol for transmitting and working with data in an extensible format. New formats and functionality can be added on the fly and with a minimum of effort. Additionally, data can be quickly translated from one format to another, for example: from the web to a telephone or pager system. (3) WAP, Wireless Access Protocol (or WML-Wireless Markup Language). Access to every system via a wireless PDA or phone will be a requirement in the very near future. These wireless devices are becoming more and more prevalent on a daily basis, and will have an install base of tens of millions in very near future. Not addressing these devices in your IT strategy or project development would ignore a huge base of powerful and portable users. WAP, though, is not without its problems --The current challenges to a successful WAP system are (a) tight integration with wired bases systems, (b) dealing with limited bandwidth and (c) handling very small screens and no keyboard. A successful WAP system will address all three of these challenges in an intelligent manner. AOK- Thanks
for your time, Sean. [Q-Industries can be reached on the web
at http://www.q-industries.com.
If you have other questions for Mr. Breen, he can be reached
by email at sbreen@q-industries.com] |
