#FollowFriday Spotlight: @PhilSimon

FollowFriday Spotlight is an OCDQ regular segment highlighting someone you should follow—and not just Fridays on Twitter.

Phil Simon is an independent technology consultant, author, writer, and dynamic public speaker for hire, who focuses on the intersection of business and technology. Phil is the author of three books (see below for more details) and also writes for a number of technology media outlets and sites, and hosts the podcast Technology Today.

As an independent consultant, Phil helps his clients optimize their use of technology. Phil has cultivated over forty clients in a wide variety of industries, including health care, manufacturing, retail, education, telecommunications, and the public sector.

When not fiddling with computers, hosting podcasts, putting himself in comics, and writing, Phil enjoys English Bulldogs, tennis, golf, movies that hurt the brain, fantasy football, and progressive rock. Phil is a particularly zealous fan of Rush, Porcupine Tree, and Dream Theater. Anyone who reads his blog posts or books will catch many references to these bands.

Books by Phil Simon

My review of The New Small:

By leveraging what Phil Simon calls the Five Enablers (Cloud computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Free and open source software (FOSS), Mobility, Social technologies), small businesses no longer need to have technology as one of their core competencies, nor invest significant time and money in enabling technology, which allows them to focus on their true core competencies and truly compete against companies of all sizes.

The New Small serves as a practical guide to this brave new world of small business.

My review of The Next Wave of Technologies:

The constant challenge faced by organizations, large and small, which are using technology to support the ongoing management of their decision-critical information, is that the business world of information technology can never afford to remain static, but instead, must dynamically evolve and adapt, in order to protect and serve the enterprise’s continuing mission to survive and thrive in today’s highly competitive and rapidly changing marketplace.

The Next Wave of Technologies is required reading if your organization wishes to avoid common mistakes and realize the full potential of new technologies—especially before your competitors do.

My review of Why New Systems Fail:

Why New Systems Fail is far from a doom and gloom review of disastrous projects and failed system implementations. Instead, this book contains numerous examples and compelling case studies, which serve as a very practical guide for how to recognize, and more importantly, overcome the common mistakes that can prevent new systems from being successful.

Phil Simon writes about these complex challenges in a clear and comprehensive style that is easily approachable and applicable to diverse audiences, both academic and professional, as well as readers with either a business or a technical orientation.

Blog Posts by Phil Simon

In addition to his great books, Phil is a great blogger. For example, check out these brilliant blog posts written by Phil Simon:

Knights of the Data Roundtable

Phil Simon and I co-host and co-produce the wildly popular podcast Knights of the Data Roundtable, a bi-weekly data management podcast sponsored by the good folks at DataFlux, a SAS Company.

The podcast is a frank and open discussion about data quality, data integration, data governance and all things related to managing data.

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