A great CEO client shared this story with me. His grandfather came to the United States and started a very successful retail and distribution business from a small fruit and vegetable store. The grandfather kept two cigar boxes at the checkout stand. One was for his bills and the other was for the cash receipts. Each Saturday he would reconcile the receipts with the bills, and if there was money left over it was a good week. The business measure was simple, fifty two good weeks in a row, satisfied customers, and the ability to build his business.

Today the cigar box has been replaced by Managed Service providers with integrated business processes, mission-critical infrastructures and end-user technology to support essentially the same result. Just not as romantic and a lot more complex.

Every so often one or more of these providers’ steps forward with "The Solution" to get us back to simpler cigar box times. Some solutions are as solid as concrete and others as fluffy as clouds. Cloud Computing is building expectations in the market; to provide the same simplicity as the cigar box. But what I miss in the dialogue is the Old Fashion Value Proposition. In short what does it do (assuming it works) besides reduce costs? Do not get me wrong reducing costs is a good thing but where is the enablement, the integration and the management with the simpler value propositions of a lost time:

• Will the cloudy cigar box of managed services enable an enterprise to lower the cost of healthcare for the consumer and improve their loyalty to the HMO?
• Can it enable the reduction of credit card fraud within the retail industry so as to lower interest rates and increase available credit to customers?
• Can it shine the sun to enable NASA to send a manned mission to MARS at a more cost efficient ratio?
• Can it assist in enabling an energy company to be greener?

Value propositions such as these need the common sense of discipline and rigor not just a quick solution. The discipline centered on a vision, a hypothesis and the rigor of a strong methodology to bring the clouds to earth for the enterprise. An Alsbridge Phase One can make sure the promise of better cigar boxes and simpler times is possible. Check it out www.alsbridge.com. It is worth the time.