"One size fits all, or mass customization....."

Who, what, where and why...

By Jeff Schaengold

Operating a standard desktop environment is recognizing that a single solution for an entire enterprise is out of the realm of practicality for diverse organizations like CIGNA. Operating and maintaining a low cost multi-tier desktop environment is more achievable and will earn a broader respect for an IT organization. A multi-tier desktop in all respects is a single hardware configuration that will support a single-user Windows based desktop, a thin client Unix based desktop, or a multi-user (general purpose) organizational desktop with limited general functionality.

While a standardized desktop environment doesn't make sense in every organization, the ability to leverage technologies like policies and ZAW (Zero Administration Workstation) to configure one desktop to meet different users' needs is a smart way to keep support costs down, notes Vaughn Frick, research director at Gartner Group, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

"It's not realistic to have 100 percent configuration lock-down," Frick says. "The standard doesn't have to be terribly rigid--you need flexibility."

Depending on one's perspective of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Activity Based Costing (ABC) and/or infrastructure transformation, standards are only as good, and functional, as the environment.

History

Much of the research and introduction to Common (Standard) Platform Desktop Best Practices began in 1995 at such organizations as Boeing and Ford. In 1996 the tools and benchmarks were published by such notable pundits as the Yankee Group, Gartner and Forrester. Since 1996, not very much has changed in the landscape, escpecially in the cost structure calculation. Much of this static activity, or lack of, is attributed to the continued increase in tools to manage the common desktop, and the licensing costs, displacing the declining costs of application license fees and direct support labor.

The bottom line is that support costs have remained flat as we've shifted from labor intensive support to support tools and we've increased our applications licensing costs while the hardware costs have been declining.

Since inflation has been relatively flat, the real dollars of 1999 are not significantly different than the real dollars of 1996.

The annual TCO for a desktop is still around $10,000 (+/-$1,000) and depending how one calculates the analysis of lifecycle which is anywhere from 2 years to 5 years.

It is suggested by this author that lifecycle has been extending geometrically to the transformation toward thin client user interface and server-side architecture. The less dependent an organization has become on fat clients (VB and Powerbuilder) and client based applications (MS Office) the longer the lifecycle of the business desktop. As depicted below, the Gartner model of 1996 for selecting Base Case vs. Best Practices Case is still as valid in 1999 as it was 3 years ago.

It is rather ironic that in 1999, companies are replacing desktops in the workplace and distributing the older desktops to employees for use at home. The employees take the desktops displaced in the workplace and utilize them at home to remotely access the same applications they access with their work desktops.

Before defining a standard desktop the following assumptions need to be embraced:

DESKTOP MANAGEMENT

1. The cost of hardware/software in a PC environment is 20/80%
2. Microsoft Windows dominates 97% of the business desktop environment
3. 65% of businesses maintain a single generation gap in upgrades
4. The role of PC Office applications are diminishing, while email and browser based applications are increasing
5. The annual cost to maintain a desktop is approaching $10,000 according to Forrester Research

DESKTOP APPLICATIONS

1. Microsoft Windows will continue to be the dominant provider of a standard desktop for the next 3 years
2. Microsoft Office integrated package is utilized at 8% of capability
3. Microsoft Access database is utilized in less than 2% of installed desktops
4. Microsoft PowerPoint presentation tool is utilized in less than 9% of installed desktops
5. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet has declined from 41% utilization to 16% utilization in a single year
6. Microsoft Word has declined from 100% utilization to 83% in a single year
7. In 1999, there are more email transmitted daily than long distance calls
8. In 1999, memo generation has declined 60%, substituted by email generation
9. In 1999, PowerPoint presentations are being displaced by html web presentations 30% annual basis
10. Html editor proliferation is at an annual growth rate of 35%
11. The thin client (browser) continues to become the dominant desktop tool growing at a 40% annual rate

DESKTOP HARDWARE

1. Hardware cost is declining at a 14% annual rate
2. The single most damaging component of hardware today is the CD drive
3. Storage of non-business-related applications are increasingly dominating the client hard drive
4. In the years 2000 and 2001 flat screens will replace all monitors
5. The hardware landscape has remained relatively unchanged 1996-1999

DESKTOP COMMUNICATION

1. Desktop communication will require 1Gb Ethernet capacity by the end of 2000
2. IP is the common protocol
3. Server (web) side architecture will continue to grow
4. Non-desktop tools will become IP conforming

DESKTOP CLIENTS

1. Thin is good....fat is bad....?
2. Thin is good for general business application
3. Fat is good in extremely multimedia rich applications such as engineering and image exchange

Any one of these points may be argued as to the timing and the actual quantitative impact. After all, one can make statistical outcome conform to the challenge but the statistical outcome does not alter reality. What is undeniable, is that Microsoft is currently the default business platform and any universal change will require more time and funding than reacting to Y2K.

The challenge facing Microsoft and the business community is that Microsoft solutions have at best been 'interim' solutions to an evolving paradigm.

Example: Microsoft Word paradigm

Case in point, Microsoft Word... Microsoft Word bridged the gap between the typewriter and manual distribution of documents. The displacement of the typewriter by the PC and the ability to create and store documents while sustaining the same logistics chain of distributing the documents required an interim tool, text editor. Even the proliferation of the fax, which created a more efficient way to distribute printed documents, required that one created a document on a PC, print the document and insert the document in a fax to be transmitted.

In the last three years, we've seen a dramatic shift from creation of documents in MS Word and printing, to creating a document in MS Word and attaching to an email, and today we create the document in our email editor directly and in most cases bypassing MS Word all together.

Our email folders have become our default filing cabinet...not our hard drive and not our 5 foot metal box.

This is very important in the context of 'standardizing the desktop' because we've seen the evolution of the desktop and the skill-set required to co-exist with a desktop.

15 years ago we needed to understand commands and basic programming logic (DOS) to manage our desktop, a typewriter to prepare documents, a pencil to a ledger sheet to account.

10 years ago the average desktop employee needed to master Windows, diskettes, hard drives, file management, authoring documents, managing printers, learning spreadsheet technology and code, database management and faxing. This was an incredible amount of learning and training. Although we were becoming more productive, the average desktop employee was progressively spending more time skills training and learning, and actually less time producing.

5 years ago the average desktop employee needed to adopt skills in telecommunication as more desktop employees demanded modem connections for remote connectivity and Internet access.

Today, the desktop employee is 'wired!' It is no longer necessary to save documents on diskettes because documents are stored on the enterprise server accessible from the desktop, home or remote... fax transmissions of documents have all but ceased...at last survey by ZDNet, 93% of fax owners have access to an ISP and the capability to send and receive email.

As quickly as email is proliferating...we see the fax become obsolete and with the fax MS Word is progressively declining in usage and prominence. At the same time we see the email tool adopt more of the same characteristics as a text editor such as font variety, format, image integration and most of all embedded html. "It is safe to admit that in 1999 the format of the email is now the universal memo."

The point of this example is two-fold. First, we need to recognize that the evolution of the desktop has now displaced the text editor, printer and the interoffice envelope.... with the email editor .... and we now have a 'text standard.' Second, we need to recognize that the overwhelming franchise of Microsoft over the desktop text-editing environment has quietly but very dramatically altered their position of prominence.

Likewise, we see that .html and web-enabled presentations are quickly displacing Microsoft PowerPoint. After all, why create a PowerPoint presentation...that requires a licensed Microsoft product and has limitations on view and file share...when you can create similar documents utilizing an .html editor, load the documents and share off a desktop/laptop as well as distribute efficiently over the Web ? Again the Microsoft franchise is slowly diminishing....

What is important to note here is the recognition that Microsoft is not going to disappear and Microsoft is not going to dramatically transform itself either. We need to recognize that Microsoft 'as a standard' will evolve rather dramatically in the next 12-18 months because its functional purpose as defined in the last 10 years is no longer applicable, but none the less Microsoft will continue to be the generally accepted desktop standard for at least 3-5 additional years.

Standard desktop vs. Common desktop

What is the distinction? Here again we have a fork in the road. The standard desktop is descriptive of Microsoft and its success story. The most significant gift Microsoft has provided the business community is the ability for Microsoft to impose a desktop standard.... much like SAP provided an ERP standard and Netscape the browser standard...and thank goodness for Microsoft or we'd be in chaos....

The common desktop is the Unix and open platform approach to the same chaotic challenge. Again, thank goodness to AT&T and Unix because without the open platform of Unix it is rather doubtful the Internet would have evolved so quickly... Common desktop to IBM and AT&T is the concept that it is not as important to have a standard as it is to have a universal language...through universality...standards naturally evolve...

It is anticipated by this author that both worlds come closer to each other over time...just as we're seeing .doc disappearing in prominence replaced by .html, we also see that Microsoft is quickly integrating seamlessly to .html from .doc to maintain a presence. As well as Unix applications and tools developers are adapting the look and feel of Windows WYSIWYG to their respective environments.

So what's the bottom line ?

The Common Platform Desktop Best Practices are:

1. Formalize an 'approved' list of applications
2. Eliminate non-business-related applications
3. Invest heavily in education and training
4. Invest heavily in bandwidth management
5. Microsoft Windows will continue to be the dominant desktop platform for the next 36 months
6. Transformation to a multi-tier desktop (Windows, browser and Unix)
7. Transform toward exclusive server-side applications
8. Divest the organization of Microsoft Office tools
9. Select one or two standard html authoring tools
10. Email standard is SMTP
11. IP standard throughout the organization
12. Reconfigure the standard hardware configuration to eliminate built-in components
13. Eliminate desktop components such as individual printers, faxes and scanners
14. Budget for conversion to flat screen in years 2000-2001

Formalize an 'approved' list of applications

Generally, this is a philosophical matter more than a business practice. This topic is rather related to the concept of an iron fist or a gentle glove. The iron fist approach is to publish an approved list of applications, such as Microsoft Word as the text editor, and anyone using Word Perfect after a specific date will....... The soft glove approach is to declare a policy that Microsoft Word is the default test editor, anyone using Word Perfect will incur a $1000 budget charge for any tech support related or unrelated issue on a desktop with Word Perfect loaded. Another approach is to assess a budget charge of xxx dollars for any document attached in an unsupported environment...for instance someone using Word Perfect distributes a document, they are assessed $100 for every addressee.

Both methods work...but it is imperative to implement the concept as the primary step of a common/standard desktop. At CHC alone, this author has experienced MS Word 95, MS Word 97 and Word Perfect... Excel 95, Excel 97 and Lotus 123...and so forth...

Eliminate non-business-related applications

Games, music, video, push-news, screensavers... these have distinct and prolific negative implications on an organization's ability to manage bandwidth and the desktop.... memory hungry applications consume desktop capacity that results in increased failure rate, upgrade requirements and rapid obsolescence.

Below is a simple table. Answer 'yes' or 'no' in the non-desktop column:

If you answer 'yes' to non-desktop for any of the above questions, than the same rules should apply to the desktop...otherwise the desktop environment should reflect the traditional business rules of CIGNA.

It is important for every organization in developing a Common Platform Desktop Strategy to apply the same rules to the desktop as you would to non-desktop activities.

Invest heavily in education and training

A common/standard desktop is well beyond selecting an IBM PC or Microsoft Windows...its ensuring the hiring and orientation process is consistent. If you hire a manager with Lotus 123 skills and the common desktop platform includes Excel, the cost of training and the time to train is necessary as part of the recruiting and hiring process, just as the cost of placing a help wanted ad or paying a recruitment fee. Likewise, if the Common Desktop platform includes the transformation to .html and web-enabling it is equally important to begin formal training of current employees as well as new hires. Too often at CIGNA as well as most major organizations...employees spend a disproportionate amount of time in a self-taught environment because their declared skills were not adequately tested and measured, or the time and expense to learn is not equated in the hiring process.

Skills testing is a critical element of Common Platform Desktop adoption.

Invest heavily in bandwidth management

For all of us monitoring the NASDQ and the market, it is very clear that telecommunication is being replaced by bandwidth providers. AT&T is transforming itself to a broadband delivery service of multi-media. In part, this is due to the recognition that 2 pair wire delivery of voice and data just can't support the demands of the year 2000 and beyond. Shielded cable and fiber are the only two channels for delivering the bandwidth required by networks and efficient desktops. For a moment, we should give recognition to the methodology of delivering 1Gb/sec. Delivery of data at this speed can load the kernels and all the application files necessary to start any PC within 15 seconds...

Imagine today, it takes on average 80 seconds to load windows at boot and 40 seconds to load any Microsoft application. With 1Gb/sec., an embedded kernel can load the bios on any client within 3 seconds, while all the applications necessary to execute the desired functions of the desktop will load into memory within 10 seconds. Want to load your browser ? You don't need on a hard drive...3 seconds and its loaded in memory...

Bandwidth capacity and bandwidth management will become a major concern for CIGNA in the second half of 2000 as desktops and servers exchange images, media, voice, etc...over the same pipeline....

Fast Ethernet in 2000....

Microsoft Windows will continue to be the dominant desktop platform for the next 36 months

Microsoft is neither a choice nor an evil. We receive significant value for what we pay. It is not Microsoft's fault if we do a lousy job of managing the use of their tools. If you buy a Lexus and use it haul building material....don't blame Lexus for not holding as many 2 by 4's as a Ford pickup or that a Lexus is a very expensive truck... If you need a pick-up truck...buy a pick-up truck...if you want a luxury car.. buy a luxury car...

To maximize the benefits of a Common Platform Desktop it is important for an organization to adopt some principles of common sense... if only 2% of CIGNA uses MS Access....why does everyone have 30Mb of hard drive allocated to Access ? Why load all the API's, help files, application files.. on 98% of the desktops ?

Equally, there are all the API's for working with Word Perfect and Lotus...Why ?

Learn to manage the Microsoft platform and CIGNA will quickly realize that the hardware is over-spec'd...there is plenty of capacity...there is adequate life...CIGNA may be able to defer a year of upgrades...and so forth...

Today, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are a standard...at CIGNA and worldwide...

Transformation to a multi-tier desktop (Windows, browser and Unix)

Going forward, it may be unlikely that Microsoft Windows will be required to manage the desktop....especially with the absence of components such as modems, cd drives and disk drives....desktops will have relatively simple kernels. Yet, the average desktop will still require the basic tools such as email client, text editor, browser, and .html editor...

In the near future, as we have seen with the typewriter and the desktop fax, we will see the Office Suite lose its purpose as computing is no longer a desktop function but a client function. To that end, it is not necessary to give Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to a Call Center environment that needs the basic thin client browser and email tool. Likewise, for those individuals who are developers and artists, there is no need for Microsoft Office products or Windows, and they can very easily survive and flourish with Unix and Unix tools.

In the long run...a well designed three-tiered 'standard' PC desktop can meet all these needs in a very cost efficient manner. Through multiple boot option, the client can be configured at boot to meet the needs of the user. You're an admin and your job is to print your bosses email on an HP printer....boot Windows and Exchange... you are in Customer Care and your day is filled with inquiries and email....boot Unix, email client, and a browser.... you are a software developer....boot Unix, email client and a terminal emulator...

Utilizing Microsoft ZAW (Zero Administration Workstation), desktops can be accessed based on individual user profiles, and deliver a full set of applications--specifically, Office 97, RealAudio, Adobe Systems Inc.'s Acrobat, the complete version of a browser, file and print services, and customized systems --- and users do not have access to any local storage.

The principal benefits of this three-tier desktop environment are the cost savings associated with TCO and the flexibility to accommodate a work force in motion to include work-at-home, virtual office and laptop...

Transform toward exclusive server-side applications

This is the future and there is no time like the present to begin planning for the future. After all we're already in server-side management for email.

Let's face it...a thin client world is exactly what it is...serve-side applications and data...delivered to a thin client....see it..touch it.... work with it....and when you're done poof its gone or you can send the mods back to the host....

Its simple, its easy, its the right way....unfortunately, the infrastructure to support this process is still in development....

Today's RAM is as large as the desktop hard drive 3 years ago...the hard drive is obsolete!

Divest the organization of Microsoft Office tools

With tools such as SMS (System Management Server) and ZAW (Zero Administration Workstation) its much easier today to customize the delivery of software...there is a reason why Microsoft bundles their applications together to sell a suite at a lower cost than individual components...but sometimes the license fee alone should not drive how the desktop is managed wisely...

Here are some simple tools...if you say you need it....either demonstrate you can use it....or invest in training for it....

If a manager wants his staff to have Microsoft Access...great....skill assess the staff...if they show adequate skill to manage Microsoft Access databases and applications...great.... on the other hand if all or some show no skills in working with Microsoft Access the manager is required to fund and provide the time for the individuals to gain certification. In every case this process either increases the value of the employee through training or reduces the cost of the company by not installing software that is not used.

In addition, adopt the email format as the default text editor and memo generator. Even if you intend not to email the document, but instead print and save the document, the email format should be the default format. As adopted, the enterprise will see a diminished reliance on Microsoft Word and significant reduction in licensing.

PowerPoint....its a wonderful tool...its clear...colorful...very visual.... the web page is now the universal presentation tool...more people around the world are accustomed to the look and feel of a web page than a PowerPoint presentation...the faster the organization adopts .html editing tools and discards the PowerPoint tool, the faster an organization will adopt an effective standard...

Select one or two standard .html authoring tools

No two .html editors function the same...some have split screens with built-in mosaic browsers so you can see the finished page as you create your text, some have built-in ftp capability like FrontPage....

Unless a person is in a specialty environment such as graphics or art environments two selected and .html editors are more than enough. All .html editors are relatively thin and require minimal space on hard drive or memory...

Overall, .html editors do not have points of failure and standardizing on a couple of editors will encourage peer support. In addition, WS-FTP Pro is an excellent and well accepted FTP tool.

Email standard is SMTP

SMTP is the universal standard....simple, clear and concise...

The landscape of email management will change considerably over the next 24 months....the analog conversion of thought and speech to a keyboard is a legacy of the typewriter....soon to disappear...speech-to-text and text-to-speech is the next generation leap and the progressive elimination of the keyboard. For those of us who plan to be working in the year 2010, the keyboard will have the same space in history as the IBM ball typewriter and the Sharp fax...

All the elements for evolving email to the next level are in place except bandwidth....next year you will voice record your message and email the .avi stream to the addressee who will listen to your email or read it...by 2001 you will receive your email in voice and image and if you want to read it...it will be subtitled....

Why is bandwidth so important...a billion emails today may be 900 trillion bits. As an AVI it would be 90000 trillion bits...no infrastructure is capable of accommodating this volume...but the infrastructure will be in place before August, 2000.

From an internal infrastructure perspective the least invested in eMail today the better. It is better to defer any investment in Intra-Corporate email until a later date. The current email infrastructure is working and working well...

IP standard throughout the organization

This is the easiest and brief best practice...IP is IP is IP....if it ain't IP....don't touch it...

Reconfigure the standard hardware configuration to eliminate built-in components

Especially since CIGNA has subscribed to SMS, get rid of the CD drives. It may still be necessary have diskette drives for emergency boot, but get rid of the CD drives...

Diskette sales have all but disappeared from the planet surface. With the exception of small Plug and Play applications and boot startup diskettes, the diskette is obsolete. It serves a limited function but yet a necessary function.

In a business environment, the CD drive is the primary portal for unauthorized software penetration. Although the CD drive is of no significant cost implication, there is a TCO implication in as much as its impact on the desktop over its life cycle.

Eliminate desktop components such as individual printers, faxes and scanners

It is also a best practice to physically inventory each PC every quarter...as mentioned earlier, the iron fist or soft glove works. The iron fist is confrontational and the soft glove is punitive.

The essence of Best Practice is the ability to maximize LAN tools only. Need a printer...LAN...need a color printer...LAN....need a scanner....LAN....

Budget for conversion to flat screen in years 2000-2001

Flat screen is here to stay. Although price is still a barrier it is anticipated that flat screen pricing will go by way of VCR...deep South once manufacturing capacity increase.

The price point is yet to be determined, but it is anticipated that $400 price point will produce a 2 year payback in energy cost reduction compared to a CRT. A flat screen consumes 20% of the energy of a CRT and eliminates a square foot of desktop real estate.

Flat screens to be introduced in mass production quantities will include built-in digital camera, microphone, speakers and jacks for earphone and microphone. The anticipated mass delivery at an attractive price point will be June 2000.

There is every reason to plan that in addition to attractive price points, there will Federal and State energy conservation tax credits for conversion.

How does a standard desktop benefit e-business?

The primary benefit of a common desktop toward e-business is the adoption of an open platform and a thin client, server-side, methodology. As we evolve to an open and self-serve environment, it is clear that our customers, vendors and strategic partners will be of the same or even remotely similar standard as our internal CIGNA standard. Much to that point CIGNA needs to recognize the world outside our firewall...

We have to ask ourselves today:

1. How well do our applications fit within the infinite world of PC's and platforms?
2. How do our applications perform in 'every' environment and 'every' platform?
3. How 'universal' are the CIGNA applications and platforms?
4. Do CIGNA applications perform equally well within the firewall as well as outside the firewall?
5. Do CIGNA applications perform as well on the LAN as well as 14.4Kb dial-up?
6. Do CIGNA applications engineered to perform on a 486 50Mhz PC as well as a PentII 300Mhz PC?

These are but a few questions that require engineering and architecture planning...

Self-serve means just that 'self-serve!' I'm reminded of the grocery model....before the supermarkets, grocery stores were small mom and pop environments. The customer came to a counter and the grocer would fetch all the goods needed by the customer to purchase. Generally the goods were behind the counter and positioned to take advantage of the store height that required the grocer to utilize various tools such as ladders and grabbers.

Imagine today, you go to your local Stop and Shop and PriceClub...and the goods you needed were 14 feet up in the rack...or the cold cut you needed was in the case and you as the customer needs to take the corned beef and slice your own....

It will never happen...self-serve required a shift in store architecture and flow design...sliced goods are packaged in most cases because the store is not about to let the consumer operate very sharp slicers and saws and knives...goods are always within reach because the last thing WalMart wants is for us to be climbing ladders to get a can of soup...

For us in technology to develop applications within our firewalls based on our rules and than port the applications beyond our firewalls is a very necessary practice toward self-serve. But....it is important to remember that it is unreasonable to expect the customer to act in the same manner as we do...as the grocer is required to slice, cut and saw....and the grocer is required to shelve goods within reasonable reach of the consumer to facilitate self-serve, we at CIGNA must ensure that our applications perform well in the CUSTOMER'S ENVIRONMENT.

Conclusion...

Pushing a desktop standard when it's the best standard is the key to this operation's success. CIGNA is a political community--CIGNA employees care what they get on their desktops. By providing the best client architecture, when the employees see what is rolled out and participate, they will adopt Best Practices.

The dominant trends in distributed computing (e.g., component software and collaborative work) will create more complexity for CIGNA IS professionals, as users struggle to assimilate new functionality layered upon rapidly aging legacy systems.

Paradigm shifts like mobile computing workgroups will put new strains on the fragile, new "infratecture" of PCs, LANs and servers. These discontinuous technology trends will bring new vendors, protocols and management challenges to the distributed environment.

The CIGNA IS organization must reinvent itself in a functionally defined mold, develop a market-savvy image, provide services that are truly valued by its customers and create demand for its own initiatives. True business-partnering with well-defined responsibilities and realistic service-level agreements are requisite.

The current targets for TCO reduction are administration and technical support. Substantial improvement in administrative costs will happen during the next five years, but technical support is likely to increase as the complexity of distributed computing increases faster than system-management initiatives come to market, unless CIGNA adopts an open platform and a thin client approach to user interfaces.

End-user operations costs are poised to skyrocket as users embark into complex new application areas with exciting new opportunities to "futz," require peer support, and develop "production shareware."

TCO is the real budget. IS organizations must discover that budget and mine it to fund the management "infratecture" necessary for the new age of distributed computing.