Why Are Technology Blackouts The New Normal? Escaping Delete, a new book by Jon Bellman, answers the question.

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Jon Bellman, Author & Consultant

Complexity’s fat finger is hovering over the Delete Key. Our smartphone lifestyles are racing toward a dark age as we drown in data, devices, and dubious applications.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (PRWEB) October 28, 2013

How many more technology blackouts will the United States tolerate in 2013?

Jon Bellman provides some public examples from the last 12 months:

HealthCare.Gov – The new website is overwhelmed with too many users - they can’t log on, sign up or buy healthcare coverage, The Washington Post, October 20, 2013, washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/experts-working-to-fix-healthcaregov-insurance-marketplace-officials-say/2013/10/20/1e1a35ce-39b4-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html;

CommonApp.Org – Glitches force universities to postpone admission deadlines, The Washington Post Blog, October 21, 2013, washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-app-glitches-frustrate-students-expose-vulnerabilities-in-admissions-system/2013/10/21/704672c6-373f-11e3-ae46-e4248e75c8ea_story.html;

PA Unemployment Compensation System – Pennsylvania terminates IBM contract after system was more than 42 months late and $60 million over budget, CruxialCIO, September 17, 2013, cruxialcio.com/60m-over-budget-pennsylvania-terminates-ibm-contract-795;

MA Department of Revenue – Massachusetts fires Deloitte after paying $54 million for a new tax filing system that didn’t work, Boston Globe, October 4, 2013, bostonglobe.com/business/2013/10/03/thousand-defects-dor-fired-deloitte-august/vVptQAuFrhmDmGoqA2aI3L/story.html;

NYC 911 – Outages force 911 emergency response operators to scramble for pens and paper, as Hewlett-Packard is blamed for overcharging NYC more than $160 million, Crain's NY Business, May 30, 2012, crainsnewyork.com/article/20120530/POLITICS/120539984;

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NASDAQ – Trading systems suffered a global three-hour blackout on August 22, 2013, Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, August 22, 2013, marketwatch.com/story/nasdaq-halts-all-trade-in-nasdaq-listed-securities-2013-08-22.

The above examples are indicative of a much larger problem. Bellman believes our economy, homeland defense networks, and health care delivery systems are all at risk. We need a framework to assess and address this daunting problem, which spans management, technology and politics. Escaping Delete provides a thoughtful and engaging one. As Bellman sees it, "Complexity’s fat finger is hovering over the Delete Key. Our smartphone lifestyles are racing toward a dark age as we drown in data, devices, and dubious applications."

In Bellman's first novel/business guide, a once-plucky CEO, caught in the black hole of his company’s IT project, has a chance meeting with a cocky maverick. The CEO learns that his problems are a microcosm of society’s technological bacchanalia and a macrocosm of our foolish personal technology behaviors.

Escaping Delete is a new kind of business book that educates and entertains. Its colorful characters guide the clarity-seeker to harness Information Technology’s amazing power while exposing the global IT industry’s risky practices, massive waste, and legions of profiteers. Business, healthcare, and government leaders will learn to simplify IT, overcome unwieldy projects, and steer clear of the black hole.

To see reviews or buy the book, click here.

Jon Bellman helps companies and their senior executives to bring wayward technology projects back on track. Before founding Reality Check LLC fifteen years ago, Jon worked as a management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand, Ernst & Young, and Price Waterhouse and on Wall Street.

He graduated from the MMM Program at Northwestern University, earning an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and an MEM from the McCormick School of Engineering.

Jon also graduated from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a BS from the Wharton School and a BAS from the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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