Books

My books are aimed primarily at a non-technical audience. They are designed to provide an understanding of the very latest technology and thinking, and how to leverage this to build your organization. 

"Jonathan lays out a clear picture of the forces driving change in the traditional IT organization and then he goes on to provide a clear picture of how IT organizations must change to reposition themselves and deliver a new value proposition to the companies they support. His description of the role of repositioned IT groups and the emergence of what he calls the 'Situational Application Analyst' is right on target. IT and business executives will profit from reading this book and implementing its recommendations."

- Michael Hugos, Award winning CIO and author of Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World

“The way we buy and build and deploy business applications is finally changing and it is changing beyond all recognition – and it’s happening very quickly. This shift towards application assembly rather than software development is going to give the business user more control over what is required and when. Find out what impact this is going to have on your ability to compete in an unpredictable world by reading this book. It will change the way you look at IT forever”.

- Jon Pyke, Chair Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and CSO,Cordys.

“The fundamental way cloud computing technology will change the business world centers on the emergence of situational applications, not replacing core enterprise systems. To find out the what, why and how of situational applications read this book, especially if you are a non-techie business person. You'll learn that situational applications aren't about technology, they are about gaining extreme competitive advantage.”

- Peter Fingar, Author of Dot Cloud: The 21st Century Business Platform, and Extreme Competition: Innovation and the Great 21st Century Business Reformation

“Jonathan Sapir has proven over and over to be a thought-leader far ahead of his time. He has significant insight, appreciation, and knowledge of complex IT movements and has a knack for distilling them in a way that is practical and hands-on. Those looking to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world would do well to read this book.”

–Ronald Schmelzer, Managing Partner, ZapThink.

“Companies of all sizes are facing unprecedented challenges which are driving them to fundamentally change the way they leverage software and technology. As a result, they are migrating to a new generation of ‘on-demand’ services to achieve their business objectives. This book provides a roadmap to help them capitalize on the rapidly growing assortment of SaaS and cloud computing alternatives which are emerging.”

- Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, Inc. and Founder of the SaaS Showplace.

"Jonathan Sapir's book, Power in the Cloud is a call to arms for both the organizations who will be more productive through the use of Cloud Computing, especially Situational Applications in the Cloud, and vendors of Situational Application platforms to make those applications easier to use. Not only do his arguments for "good enough" web applications that solve immediate problems make rational sense, but they feel good too.

Through reading this book, you will learn what situational applications are, which problems they solve, and many best practices that will help your organization proceed into the future of information management."

- Randall Minter, Founder and CTO at Qrimp, Inc

 

"This book provides keen insight into the core problems that plague Information Technology and strangle the productivity of knowledge workers. The vision presented in the book is quite bold and yet clearly within reach given the current state of technology and the knowledge workers' insatiable drive to be empowered. 

Sapir introduces a paradigm for business solution development in which the knowledge worker is empowered to meet their core, day-to-day IT needs with a dramatic decrease in reliance upon the IT Department. Sapir demonstrates that the technology required to permit a non-technical knowledge worker to design complex business solutions without dependence upon IT currently exists. The missing key is the actual paradigm itself - the visualization and user-interface that actually provides the end-user with the ability to develop such solutions. In this book, Sapir offers a revolutionary, and yet easy-to-understand, solution to this problem, with what he refers to as Personal Service Builders or PSB's. 

The impact of the application of PSB's to software development is tremendous, bringing solutions to end-users faster, at lower cost, with less intrusive business practice integration, higher business logic adaptability, lower cost of ongoing system maintenance and longer system lifespan. 

The argument for the PSB metaphor is succinct and convincing. The impact PSB's will have on the corporations that are advanced-thinking enough to adopt them is made clear. In the end, the reader is left anxious to see this new technology at work and try his own hand at building complex solutions to complex problems at a fraction of the cost and time to market."

- Kenn Palm, CEO at Offshore Creations

"As an author, former IT executive, and veteran of many IT wars, I am certainly well trained to defend against those that would dare suggest change is needed. But maybe, mellowing with age, allows me to finally look in the mirror, and hear voices such as Harvard's Nicholas Carr in "Does IT Matter" and InfoPower's Jonathan Sapir - "Igniting the Phoenix - A New Vision for IT." Much has been written about Carr, but Sapir's book is the jewel that offers a visionary, yet practical road map "to not throwing the baby out with the bath water", while preparing for 21st century information solutions. The phoenix, one that has served its life purpose and is ready to burst in flames, parallels what CIO's should see before them. It is time for this era of information systems to change, and a new phoenix to emerge, an era of knowledge sharing. After, years of building, and supporting business solutions that have never quite lived up to expectation and business need, the problems of IT are not solved by outsourcing the same old thing to less expensive developers in India or otherwise. Sapir points to a new approach in which "Information technology is now capable of providing the infrastructure that allows users the freedom to become self-reliant ... in a way compatible with the goals of the organization." Sapir's book shares a vision that is a must read for IT professionals and knowledge workers who care about their future. It offers those who need practical answers to SOA, Web Services, Software as a Service, Personal Service Builders - new approaches to solving business challenges."

- David Shimberg, Managing Client Principal at HP

"I have spent the last 13 years in the IT industry and looking back it is amazing just how much the industry has changed. The tools available to me now have made me several orders of magnitude more productive over those years. Every so often it is important to take stock of the direction of the industry and this book helped clarify the issues relevant today. It is clear that we are on the verge of yet another milestone in the industry. Web services, PSBs and Service Oriented Architecture are going to be key forces in the upcoming revolution. The battle will empower business users by making systems development so simple that any motivated employee will be able to effortlessly build complex systems from simple building blocks.

Great book!"

- Soren Lloyd, Lead Architect at Whitney Automotive Group