What’s a Yammer and why was I all over it? If you use Twitter or other microblogging services user, skip the rest of this paragraph – the short version is that it’s a communication platform that allows for the exchange of short messages between individuals as well as broadcasts. You can have threaded conversations as well as topic-focused ones using hashtags (e.g. #marketing, #myCMDB, or #competition). The idea is that instead of status meetings, or reading email threads, I can tap into a river of quick updates on various topics.

Everyone I invited recognized the inherent value of Yammer, largely because we have a few Twitter users in-house such as myself and Frank and we’ve talked it up. So why didn’t more people sign up and start using it right away? After stripping away the usual objections about another site to use, maintaining another social graph, luddite like fears of another Enterprise 2.0 fad and so on, the core issue turned out to be security, and more specifically trust in the cloud.

What it came down to was that everyone was concerned that we would adopt a communication system that although very valuable, resided outside of our firewall, in a service that was new, with no clear references to indicate that we could entrust our company’s confidential data. For the record, Managed Objects subscribes to a number of SaaS applications including Salesforce.com so we’re not averse to the model, we just need something to get over the Trust Hump (new term?).

Although it would be a great place for everyone to keep track of and discuss topics like our myCMDB product development activities, tips on handling specific competitors, partner/channel news, industry news, key sales activities and more, I don’t have a good answer on the Trust Hump. The testimonials on the Yammer website are great and reinforce the value side of the equation but don’t help with my issue.  The mashedlife approach to answering this question is a great start.

What's the solution? An inside-the-firewall Yammer solution would be great. Having it hosted in a trusted cloud (is there one that is recognized as such?). Or integrating it with a service that we already use. For example, a Salesforce.com + Yammer combo where account names are automatically used as hashtags? That would be awesome. If you have suggestions on handling the Trust Hump, alternate solutions, or ideas about other integrations, leave a comment.

- Abbas

Proven cost-reducing IT measures (i.e. layoffs and investment cuts) will be no-doubt be adopted, while less traditional areas like SaaS, virtualisation and outsourcing should all flourish even more from this turn of events. Indeed in its recent “The State Of IT Services: 2008”, Forrester reported that while budgets have been slashed, demand for outsourced services remained high.

However IT is done, whether in-house, in the cloud or otherwise, it needs to be done with minimal cost. But while hardware and software costs have consistently fallen throughout ‘IT history’, operational costs like salaries have consistently increased. One benefit of business service management, is that it automates time-consuming processes like root cause analysis and it can project the potential effects of change on IT services. The attraction of such automation becomes particularly apparent when considering the looming squeeze on budgets as it presents a clear way of circumnavigating the predicament.

What is clear about this period of economic uncertainty is that businesses are demanding even more transparency over IT, both in-house and outsourced and IT downtime is likely to be scrutinised at a far higher level for far more firms than in the past. With IT downtime presenting potentially business-threatening cost, IT operations will increasingly find themselves mandated to take a more strategic approach to preventing downtime.

For example, in one session on CMDBs, in excess of 50% of the audience (by show of hands) said they were currently implementing a CMDB. Two-percent admitted they were on their second try having failed the first time around. No surprise integration was routinely cited as the main culprit and that’s an area Managed Objects has certainly mastered.

StackSafe has posted some notes from the show here – and we’d like to offer some bits and bytes – mostly paraphrases – as well:

>> Congratulations to Cindy from Hallmark (photo nearby) who won our Wii raffle.

>> IT is good at measuring performance, but poor at measuring quality.  A help desk that aims to solve 60% of incidents on the first call is really just encouraging staff to close a ticket with a poor answer and reopen a new one with another call. – Malcolm Fry, “CIO and the 366 Degree Circle”

>> Roughly 10% of the audience raised their hand when asked “do you know what BSM is?” – Lisa Erickson Harris, “BSM and Best Practices, Elevating the Role of the Service Desk”

>> IT investments will continue to grow, but they must either produce cost savings in the supply chain or improve the customer experience – Charlie Feld “Enabling 21st Century Business Model with IT”

>> A well run IT department is like air – it’s taken for granted. – Dennis Ravenelle, IT Service Continuity Management, Where do I start?

>> “An inaccurate CMDB is worse than no CMDB.” – Richard Peasley, Building Decision Support Systems that Work

- Abbas