On Demand B2B with John Radko

Eliminating Planned and Unplanned Downtime

Recently we unveiled Trading Grid 2007 with a suite of new capabilities.  As we move all of our global customers to Trading Grid Ultra Infrastructure over the next couple of years, the benefits will be tremendous.  Our Ultra Infrastructure – based on eGenera – has been live and in production for nearly nine months now after two years of development and testing and the results are stellar. 

Today, the entire technology industry continues to tout availability metrics solely based on measuring unplanned operational outages but conveniently ignoring planned service interruptions, or service ‘windows.’   We plan to change this thinking. 

The business impact from any downtime – planned or unplanned – is significant.  Today’s supply chains are increasingly global and depend on real-time continuous flow of information.  Increasingly, there will be no convenient time for ‘upgrade’ interruptions. 

When I recently reviewed the results measuring planned downtime so far this year on our new integration platform technology versus older platforms, the results are very encouraging.   This year our planned downtime for our Trading Grid Messaging Services has been only five hours total.  This compares to an average of 100 hours or more across our well-oiled mainframe based systems so far this year.  A dramatic reduction of planned downtime by nearly 95%.  

Our lead technical architects credit a loosely-coupled architecture with diverse and redundant components throughout supported by a high-performance switch fabric and software virtualization. 

While we all know eliminating planned and unplanned downtime is a grand ambition, it is great to see the fruits of our investments proving we can get very, very close.

Late getting started…

I know, I know I am late getting this going.  My PR team hounds me daily.  So here goes...

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ETech 2007 - day one

I'm attending the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference in San Diego this week. In effect that means I "morning" on the East Coast (via telephone), but "evening" on the West Coast. Life is funny though, because this actually makes it easier to work with my colleagues in India during their morning (sometimes distance is good).

 

 

A Look inside the Pure SaaS OpenAir, a world without version numbers….

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Geoff Crawshaw of OpenAir, about the approach they have taken to managing their software as a service offering.  GXS is an OpenAir customer (we use it to manage our professional service teams projects and time tracking), and we recently had an internal session to look at how we use OpenAir, and what is distinctive about it as a service -- things that would be difficult to match through the purchase of traditional enterprise software.

Welcome !

So welcome to my blog, this is a new experience for me, you get to hear about blogs on the internet and to be honest this is the first opportunity I have had to actually start one !

Anyway, I have been working in the IT / B2B industry now for nearly 15 years and over this period I have had the benefit of working with many different automotive companies. For example working with a major OEM to help design a management information tool and working with Tier 2 / 3 suppliers to enable them to understand the benefits of implementing a collaborative design environment.

Having worked with both OEMs and suppliers over the years it has been interesting to understand the issues faced by these companies when trying to implement any type of B2B technology. Many of these companies expect to be able to implement B2B technology over night but there are many pitfalls to watch out for and overcome before a company can say that they have implemented a truly 'efficient' B2B environment.

Over the coming months I would like to share my thoughts and opinions on B2B related issues in the automotive industry and I will try and make this blog an interesting and at times, light hearted read. Please feel free to contribute to any posts I make........

Road-warrior Catch-22

Traveling on the West Coast for a couple days this week, with a red-eye (sigh) home tonight.  The view of Mount Ranier was almost worth the flight alone, as the weather is clear and perfect (of course my destination is now under several inches of snow).

Terms of Use

This website is made available by GXS, Inc. (GXS). By registering or submitting a comment on the site, you acknowledge that you have read these terms and agree to them. If you do not wish to be bound by these terms, please do not register or submit a comment for posting on the site.

1. Use of Services; Intellectual Property. You agree to use this site in accordance with applicable law, including data privacy laws and that comments posted by you on the site will not be inaccurate, obscene, pornographic or otherwise objectionable and will not defame, compromise the trade secrets or confidential information of, or violate the copyright or other intellectual property rights of, any third party. GXS reserves the right to terminate access to the site for any reason, including violation of these terms or to take other actions it believes to be necessary to comply with the law or prevent harm to GXS systems or other users. You agree to indemnify and hold GXS harmless from any liability, costs or damages arising out of your comments or your unlawful or improper use of the site.

2. Comments; Links. You understand and agree that GXS may delete or refuse to post your comments in whole or part, in its sole discretion. Nonetheless, GXS is not responsible and disclaims any liability for the content of comments posted to the site. If links to other sites are included on this site, you understand that GXS has no control over the content of such sites or your use of them and accepts no liability relating to them.

3. Infringement; Other Violations. If you believe that any comments or other materials on the site infringe your copyrights or personally defame you or disclose your confidential information, please send an e-mail containing a description of your concerns and your contact information to GXSCopyrightAgent@gxs.com.

4. Rights in Materials. All posted comments shall become the property of GXS. By posting your comment on the site, you acknowledge and agree that your comment may be reused by GXS or quoted in other media.

5. Modifications of Terms. GXS may unilaterally change these terms at any time by conspicuously posting notice of such change in the Registration area of the site. Continued use of the site after such notice will constitute acknowledgment and acceptance of the revised terms and conditions.

6. Disclaimer of Warranty. THE SITE AND THE CONTENT THEREOF ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”. THERE ARE NO STATUTORY OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND RELATING TO THE SITE. GXS MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATION CONCERNING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS OR USEFULNESS OF ANY CONTENT ON THIS SITE. GXS DOES NOT WARRANT THE AVAILABILITY OF THE SITE OR THAT THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED. YOU AGREE TO ASSUME ALL RISK OF LOSS OR LIABILITY FOR THE USE OF THE SITE AND ANY MATERIALS ON IT.

7. Limitation of Liability. NEITHER GXS NOR ITS SUPPLIERS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM OR CAUSE, HOWEVER ARISING, WICH RELATES TO OR RESULTS FROM THE PROVISION OR USE OF THE SITE, OR ANY CONTENT CONTAINED ON THE SITE, INCLUDING ANY LIABILITY FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGE (EVEN IF GXS OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE).

8. Dispute Resolution. Any action in connection with the site or these terms must be commenced not more than two (2) years after the date the right, claim, demand or cause of action first arose, and will be decided under the law of the State of
Maryland, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules. Any right to jury trial in any such action is waived.

About Me

As senior vice president and chief marketing officer at GXS, I oversee the strategic direction and positioning of GXS, including corporate strategy, global marketing, product development and corporate communications.

I joined GXS after serving as chief marketing officer and vice president of strategy at Digex, Incorporated. Prior to that position, I held a variety of senior management roles at Digex, including vice president of business and product development. Before joining Digex in 1996, I was senior consultant for Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and senior computer specialist for the FBI.

I attended George Mason University, where I earned a bachelor’s of science in Management Information Systems. My wife and I reside in Northern Virginia with our two daughters.

About Me

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I am currently working as an Industry Marketing Director at GXS. In this role I oversee the Automotive and Manufacturing industry sectors, in addition I also look after the product marketing of a couple of GXS B2B solutions. So all in all a fairly busy role!

Prior to working for GXS I spent 15 years working for a couple of companies in the Product Lifecycle Management space, put more simply companies selling software to allow you to design products ! These roles allowed me to work closely with Automotive OEMs and Tier1 suppliers. I took a career break in 1999 and worked for the McLaren Formula 1 team, one of those job offers you don't really turn down!

I gained an MBA from Warwick Business School in 2006 & an MSc in Computer Aided Engineering Systems from Cranfield University in 1992.

Outside of work, I have a keen interest in cars and motorsport, I enjoy Tennis, DIY and eventually would like to design and build my own house. I recently got engaged and we will be getting married next summer.