THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:34:12 -0700
03 00050 61 02072601
Mr. Tom Munnecke
Vice President
munnecket@saic.com
Executive Offices
Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC)
10260 Campus Point Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
..
Subject:
Network Bookkeeping System
Transformation Little Effort Yields Big Rewards
Dear Tom,
Responding to your letter on July 25, it helps to get a link to the record for
context in responding to inquires. Click on the double dots showing an
explicit link and copy the address from the location bar, then paste it to your
letter. It only takes a second and this small investment saves a lot of time
and money for others to understand communication and take appropriate action.
It greatly increases the chances of getting a response by lowering the level of
effort.
.. For example, today, it took about 90 seconds to get the records you seem
to have in mind. However, that entailed interpretation, and then looking up a
subject and calling a report. What if I made a mistake interpreting what you
said, the time could have doubled, tripled or worse, taken up to 5 minutes
using SDS where everything is in the right place at the right time, as
reported on April 25, 2001.
Some people might have said, "Hey, I don't have five seconds to do a favor,
must less 5 minutes." As a result, people give up because it is
too hard to find anything,
as reported on October 3, 2001, and
earlier
on September 16, 2001, just days
after the nation was attacked, because it is too hard for the
national security team
to find relevant information in time using methods everybody likes. When
communication is not fast and easy, people give because the task is too
complex, noted by
Drucker,
reviewed on November 30, 1993.
.. If you had supplied a link, as shown below, it would have taken only one
second or maybe 2 or 4 seconds, if the system is slow today. ref DIT 1 LS9F
That's within the worse case scenario for even the laziest, inconsiderate,
apathetic interlocutor to respond. In other words, good technology reduces the
amount of diligence needed for good management to nearly the needed for bad
managment, almost zero. When good management is just as fast and easy as bad
management, attitudes suddenly change. A lot more people say, "Hey, why not do
it right and look it up instead of guess. After all, it doesn't take a lot of
diligence to click a link."
.. In addition, look at the cost savings of 900%, 450% or 250% at worst.
Any way you look at it, multiplied across the nation of people looking things
up, that's a lot of savings, particularly when combined with the cost of fixing
mistakes when people get by relying on remembering only the gist of things,
because they don't have time to find correct information, reported on 011003,
ref SDS 7 EC5N, and earlier on 000927. ref SDS 3 PO4F
.. 900% savings on using SDS, and 2,000% to 3,000% savings over traditional
methods everybody likes, aligns with ROI of 10:1 found by USACE in a report,
ref DRP 1 7400, received on 971008. ref SDS 2 5775
.. Some people say nobody cares about cost savings because they get paid the same
whether they work intelligently or not. But, eventually, as waste and mistakes
build up a critical mass is reached and suddenly there is no job, like at
Enron, Worldcom, etc.
.. On the substance of your letter,
Dan Palanza
has done important work on
network bookkeeping shown for example in the record on July 10, 1999.
.. Dan explained his
ideas in more detail
in a letter on August 4, 1999.
.. Recently, application of this method may arise in open source and "free"
software development, and in various new models proposed for example by Jack
Park on 020522 discussing micropayments, which implies rigorous accounting. By
copy, I am letting Jack know of your interest in this matter.
.. Also, providing a copy to OHS/DKR group looking into ways to use
technology for improving knowledge work.
.. You may be able to reach Dan at the email address shown above.