I think it's very important at the beginning of the year to review the last twelve months.
Firstly, I think it's important to review the things for which we feel "thankful". There are a few obvious ones in my life. My children's health and well-being, yes that's definitely something to be very grateful for. That my wonderful wife has seen fit to put up with me for yet another year, definitely, good one. That I have been reasonably successful this year with my business ventures and because of that my family was able to enjoy a great Christmas and are able to take a couple of weeks off and go to Florida at the end of the year - absolutely, everybody needs to re-charge the old batteries every now and again and this is rapidly becoming our family tradition.
One other thing that comes to mind this year is clarity. I have a great deal of clarity in my life right now. Certain events have led to that over the last couple of years. One of my closest friends has a child that is battling cancer. The grace with which he and his family have approached this situation provides me with a great deal of clarity on what is most important in life. For the 3rd time in five years I found myself on the wrong end of small company (slash) political situation. I worked my butt off, I gave everything I had, sacrificed much and walked away with the proverbial "short end of the stick" (unemployed, no parachute).
So the bottom line here, personal and family life - I'll give myself an "A". Professionally, a very frustrating and hard fought "C". Financially I'll give myself a "B", through a lot of hard work, but we still probably could've done better on the budgeting and planning.
Hey, speaking of budgeting and planning, this is a field with which I am very familiar. I've worked in the OLAP (mostly Hyperion and Oracle technologies) for the past 15 years. I was also looking back at the mergers/acquisitions that occurred in the last few months. Amazing... There really is not a single, independent major player left in the industry. Hyperion was bought by Oracle. Business Objects bought by SAP and even little old ("dead in the water") Cognos bought by the ever-present 800 lb. gorilla (IBM). Absolute unbelievable.
As a consultant working in this industry I am provided a healthy 3rd person point of view (which is nice). Who does this help? Well obviously it helps the buying companies expand into the growing BI (business intelligence) marketplace. Who does this harm? Well, the customers of course. Anytime companies these large are allowed to merge the customers are going to get the short end of the stick. They will pay more for their products and services. They will receive much less value in these products and services. (see past post on the death of entrepreneurship and large companies).
Now, in my case, as a services provider these mergers are wonderful opportunities. The larger companies will continually put out products with problems ("undocumented features"). The internal services organizations within Oracle, IBM (global services), SAP, etc will not be able to cope with these issues - they'll have problems of their own focusing on nothing but billable hours with the lowest level of talent acceptable by their customers. So what is a customer of these technologies to do when caught in the proverbial "rock and hard place"?
Yes, that's right. Call me. Your independent systems integrator, technical expert, one man band.
Actually, don't just call me. Call any one of the extremely talented independent BI practitioners that are currently out there. You know that you will be getting great quality - independents generally don't last very long in this industry unless their services are top-notch. You'll pay much less money ($150-$200/hr versus $225+). And you will generally never be caught in an unfavorable contract situation with a large billing agency and corporate lawyers breathing down your neck (I've seen this happen, it ain't pretty).
And lastly, view the outside help that you are asking for just like a very, very critical hire. I can't tell you how many times I've had to come in to a software installation that has been screwed up by $40/hr consultants who received most of their "training" from Bangalore. Trust me on this one, even if you don't I have several references that will back me up on this one. You truly get what you pay for in this industry and market rates are the rule.
Remember at the start of this I thanked my "clarity"? Well, what makes me most valuable in this consulting space is my 3rd person point of view to these corporations that I help out every day and it is also my "clarity" in watching this industry (from inside and out!) so closely for so long.
Happy New Year everybody!
I've got some time in the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting more on this subject!
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