I recently made a very unpleasant discovery with my current phone system support agency. As a little background, we moved our infrastructure to a Voice over IP (VoIP) solution about a year and a half ago, and have found it a wonderful productivity tool. We have been able to streamline branch operations and gain insight into call volumes and patterns, whereas before we would just have to guess.

We originally started the process with a very solid consultant, and ended up having to switch servicing agencies due to some logistical issues. The servicing agency was quite adept at handling the issues, and shortly thereafter, the support plan started to come up for renewal.

As usual, I asked my provider to send me a copy of their service level agreement (SLA) for review. This allows me to understand what I’m buying and what expectations they have. Usually, these items are identified in a sales process, but due to the circumstances of the move, this was not the case. In short, my new servicing provider had different terms for than my previous provider.

So here’s the rub, even though my company is paying for service and support, the verbiage indicates than any settings changes, adds, moves, or changes will be subject to additional charges at the hourly billable rate.

Part of the reason I bought a VoIP system was its flexibility in allowing my internal support team to handle changes as we needed to. According to this SLA, I could be charged if I make any changes that inadvertently cause problems.

Additionally, this company does not include support for Windows Updates. While I understand that some systems updates wreak havoc on proprietary solutions built on Windows platforms, but this now forces me to choose whether I should leave my system out of date and vulnerable to attack from malicious parties or incur charges should I follow Microsoft’s own recommended update schedule.

I’m now caught in the middle between Microsoft and a line of business solution - my phone system - which is crucial to our daily operations.

What are your thoughts on this?

I have some more conversations with the executives at my service provider, and I will keep you posted on how things turn out. By the way, this is the same company this post was about too, What’s in a Checkbox.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

“Where’s there’s mystery, there’s magic” as the saying goes.

IT has held a position of sway in many organizations since mainstream business began integrating technology with their lines of business. In today’s economy, it is unthinkable to detach technology from your business. I think most would agree, while the headcount can be hotly debated, there is a lot of job security for the technologist’s position within a company.

However, IT has been known to be a little myopic in their approach in support of the overall business and its needs. In other words, IT has a bad rap for being tactical in offering solutions, often retreats to methods of control rather than seeking understanding, and would rather play with toys that dig into sticky cultural issues.

The Throne:

Many small-to-medium businesses (SMB’s) across the U.S. have created the position of IT Supervisor or IT Manager. This designation often times indicates a position that is integral in “supervising” or “managing” the various technology systems and programs in place within the business, in support of day-to-day operations. This position is often thought of as a tactical support position, executing strategies set by the “business-side” of the business.

Well, what about businesses who have CIO’s?  This is supposedly a position of influence, directly able to impact top line growth, bottom line savings, or both. Studies indicate that more CIO’s are now reporting down the “food-chain” to COO’s and CFO’s.

Last year, 45% of those responding to a survey by the Society of Information Management said the CIO in their organization reported to their CEO. This year, that number is 31%.

Position or Philosophy:

Why would the position of the key technology player in a business even matter? There are 2 key reasons:

1. The position can indicate a company’s perspective on how technology impacts the business.
2. Reporting directly to the CEO offers some level of political clout, and allows more autonomy in setting holistic and strategic agendas for the business.

However, position alone is not truly important. Technologists within a company can be successful in many different reporting structures. The key to understanding whether IT is valued within an organization is understanding that IT must value the organization, and bring value to the organization.

Too often, IT spends its time toddling around with the proverbial blinders on, does not seek to understand the business, and keeps the culture at arms length - to be dealt with, not embraced.

This study indicates that CIO’s know they need to change:

[CIO's listed their] top three concerns—staffing, business/IT alignment, and building up business skills—are all human resource and skills related and that those issues were cited by more than 40% of respondents.

Gatekeeper or Bridge:

In a previous article, Is IT a Gatekeeper or Bridge, I detailed 4 skills every technology leader should embrace:

1. Align yourself with business units
2. Listen and don’t be defensive
3. Innovate
4. Offer customers choices not obstacles

Here are 10 questions to ask yourself:

1. Do you know what your business is in the business of?
2. Do you find ways to help increase sales?
3. Do you find ways to help spend less? - and I’m not talking about ordering 4GB of RAM instead of 8GB with your new laptop.
4. Do you welcome people into your office or quickly pick up the phone and pretend to be in a deep discussion?
5. Do you understand the goals and challenges of each of your business’s leaders?
6. Are you looking to help your business leaders achieve their goals and overcome their obstacles?
7. Would you rather be at your desk deciding whether DameWare or VNC works better, or out talking with your customers to see what you can improve in their work lives?
8. When your customers see you coming, do they smile and waive, or do they look down and sigh?
9. Do you wear shirts with slogans like, “I read your emails” or “I H8 U”?
10. Do you point fingers or pull the thumb? In other words, so always look to blame someone else, or seek to carry the burden on your shoulders and solve the problem at hand?

Consultant to the Culture:

My point here is not to disparage the technology advocates and enthusiasts within the organization, nor to undermine their vital role in supporting the day-to-day operations. No, this diatribe is pointed squarely at those claiming to be in leadership positions who slough off their responsibilities of stewardship.

IT Supervisors, IT Managers, and CIO’s, once they understand the business, must understand they should be a chief consultant to the business - seeking to blend technologies and cultures; they are both the cheerleader and critic, painting a portrait of how things could be sprinkled with some seasoning of reality.

Wake up! IT has to get out of the business of being in IT, and into the business of running the business.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

What do you think of when you think of the term ‘currency’ ? Dictionary.com offers these definitions of currency:

cur·ren·cy [kur-uhn-see, kuhr-] –noun, plural -cies.

1.	something that is used as a medium of exchange; money.

2.	general acceptance; prevalence; vogue.

3.	a time or period during which something is widely accepted and circulated.

4.	the fact or quality of being widely accepted and circulated from person to person.

It is interesting to notice that while money is certainly mentioned, first and foremost, currency is a medium of exchange, indicating value does not lie within the value of the coin or dollar intrinsically. So then, who decides what manner of exchange is to be employed and what value is to be placed upon the denominations used?

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In social media terms, Twitter has followers, FriendFeed has subscribers, and Plurk has Karma… they are all status symbols signifying importance or authority… Who places value on them? The participants of those communities, of course. If you are not fond of social media, or have not been exposed to it, then you might ask why such trivial things matter?

Let’s broaden our analogy: For those in web-based marketing, often termed search engine optimization (SEO), maybe it’s unique visitors (uniques) or conversation rates. For those in brick-and-mortar businesses maybe it’s customer retention rates, revenue per employee, or sales per square foot.

All in all, we all seek to assign value to our transactions and why? Quite simply, to survive.

We live in a world where everything has a price, and in assigning value to your product or service you attempt to broadcast your worth to your clients, to the world, and most importantly - to you, yourself.

Ah, now there is the rub. Up until this point, this is all basic economics, right? Well, have you ever considered the reason you are so caught up in trying to inflate your value is to take a place of superiority for yourself - above others?

Let me give you a more personal example:

I started this blog several months ago for a reason, I would even call it a cause. My goal was two-fold:

1. I wanted people to know who I was.
2. I wanted to share my thoughts with others, and encourage debate and discussion.

I dug in, and learned more and more about blogging tools, tricks, and sought any advice I could get. I worked long hours building this site, and had quite a few frustrations. Then somewhere along the way, I discovered I was spending more time pumping my blog - pumping myself up - and less time creating content. I found I was spending less time enjoying myself.

My currency had become me… pushing me, pumping me up, talking about me… Does that sound as self-centered as it looks while I’m writing this?

Now here is my adjusted goal:

1. I wanted people to know who I was.
2. I want to share my thoughts with others, and encourage debate and discussion.

Now that I am focused on connecting with people, I am much more focused on creating content and having fun. I have rediscovered the joy of interacting with others simply for that - not with ulterior motive in mind. Where the currency I had traded in used to be a currency of “me”, I have learned that trading in a currency of “you” actually betters my experience, and comes back to me ten fold.

So as you travel through your life, ask yourself, “What currency do I trade in?” If it is a currency of “me”, you may find that you are feeding your ego and starving your soul.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Randy Pausch, the professor at Carnegie Mellon University who inspired countless students in the classroom and others worldwide through his highly acclaimed last lecture, has died of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47.

You may read the full article on CMU’s website.

My thoughts and prayers go to the Pausch family.

Even though I never met Randy, he was truly an humbling inspiration to me.

As a citizen of the blogosphere, and being technology-minded, I enjoy trying new things. Plurk was one of those new things.

While some may argue it was too weird, some may maintain it was a Twitter knock-off, and some may just not like it - Plurk has a very interesting interface and an even better community.

I first gave Plurk whirl back in early June, and even wrote a little piece comparing its features against that of Twitter, called Twitter = Ego; Plurk = Fun.

So why say goodbye? Well, there are a few reasons.

1. Noise:

I am attempting to cut through the noise, and social outlets like Plurk and Twitter generate an awful lot of that, in my humble opinion. With the amount of information coming at me, I need a very succinct way of pairing back what I don’t need - almost an RSS reader for social media - if you will.

2. Connect:

I am attempting to connect to others, in a meaningful way. While the community in Plurk is wonderful, I would liken it to happy hour at a bar. If you want to unwind and have some interesting conversations - with LOTS of tangents - then Plurk is definitely the place for you.

3. Time:

I want to learn things from others, and I get this when reading others blogs or parsing through my subscriptions in FriendFeed. Plurk was very good at this, as long as I was willing to put in a copious amount of time.

This was not productive for me. I need to invest my time wisely with all of the various priorities in my life. I’m sure each of you, my readers, can relate to this - and make these decisions more and more now as well.

In general, this was not a hard decision to make when I stepped back and analyzed my goals relative to where I am spending my time. There is only a finite amount of time and energy I have, and while each and every community out there is wonderful in its own right, I can only be part of so many.

To the A-Team at Plurk, my hats off for creating something very interesting - but it’s time I said, “good night.”

Watch-out Twitter - you may have to be next…

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Just what is it you think you are trying to sell me?

In my role with the company, I am not only responsible for day-to-day operations in our customer-facing technology group, but I am responsible for internal technology initiatives as well. This would include all infrastructure between several different branch locations, as well as contract negotiations with partners, vendors, and service providers.

So I received a phone call today from a local voice and data service provider requesting an audience to tell me about their offerings. I let the call go to voicemail because I wanted to hear the elevator speech as to why I should listen to this person - let’s call her Nancy.

So, Nancy leaves a message informing me that her company provides both data and voice services for company’s just like us all over.

OK, so far this is fine. It’s the same as everyone else, but fine.

Next, Nancy goes on to inform me of an all encompassing voice and data solution that I may not be aware of called a T-1…

Let me tell you, if I don’t know what a T-1 is, then I must’ve pulled one heck of a snow-job on the President and Owner of my company… In reality, if I don’t know what this is I should be fired.

Come on, I provide solutions for my customers every minute of my life, and here you are not only informing me how uneducated you are, but not selling me on what I want to here.

What is that you may ask?

How are you going to help me solve my business problems and satisfy my customer needs - that’s what!

So, 30 seconds into the voicemail message, Nancy is fired. She’s not even getting to first base! Take a lesson from this and apply it - please!

I am pleased to announce we have a new contributing author at ChangeForge, Strong One. I have had the pleasure of following Strong’s blog over the last several months, and he always makes me think and laugh.

Strong One is a Certified Athletic Trainer and a Registered Nurse who enjoys what life has to offer. His blogging is an attempt to make life more play than work… and not know the difference between the two. You can learn more about Strong and his blogging at To Be A Strong One.

Please take some time to read his first post, Do You Pay It Forward?.

For anyone that is interested in becoming a contributing author at ChangeForge, please feel free to contact me.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

But did you know it’s an actual plan based on a work of fiction?

If you’ve read the book, or have seen the movie, it’s based on a very simple but profound idea. An idea that can generate a world movement. An idea for world change.

Person A does a good deed, or a favor, for person B . As payment or ‘payback’ person B does a good deed, or a favor, for 3 more people. Then each of those 3 people repeat the same action. Then those 9 people repeat the same action as the first. Whether you’re any good at mathematics or not, you can see the endless number of people this can potentially affect, and the lives this can impact.

At it’s very worst, 1 person can have a positive impact and effect on 3-9 people. At it’s best… 1 person can have a positive impact and effect on hundreds, even thousands… possibly millions.

It’s a simple act of faith. Faith in one person’s ability. Faith in the general consensus that all men (& women) are good-natured.

Hmmmm…

So is everyone you meet good-natured and genuine?

Therein lies the problem with the plan.

I wonder what kind of world this would be if we all could grasp this simple concept.

We as a society (whether we like to admit it or not), find it very easy to follow the concept “an eye for an eye”. Yeah it’s a dark and evil connotation. This idea spawns from a wrong-doing done to you or someone you love.

I know when I think of those acts we do not like to speak of… when I think about my family, my wife, or my close friends being harmed, I start to get that really bad feeling in my gut; You know, those harshest of crimes, like rape, murder, excessive violence, hate crimes, etc.

How would you react if that happened to someone you love? Would you let it ‘roll off your shoulders’? Or

would you let the arm of the law take care of the injustice done to you and yours???

I scare myself thinking about what I may or may not do. I start to shake.. And well.. Let’s just say that I would become a very, not-nice person.

So why is it that we feel so passionately about an unjust wrong, but we can’t repeat and mirror that passion when something good comes our way?

Why can’t we extend and enhance a good deed or a favor? Why can’t we stay positive throughout our tough and stressful days?

Why is it so easy to seek revenge?

Why is it so hard to pay it forward?

Do you pay it forward?

Carpe Diem

As proponents of technology, salespeople will always gravitate to the tools that enable us to communicate more effectively.  This is true of virtually every modern communication system such as telephones, facsimile, email, web, or text messaging.  In many respects, sales have driven adoption of these tools across a broader spectrum of business.  In the document output industry however, where the core product is the printed word, we often neglect a basic form of communication - the personal touch of a handwritten note.

To be clear, there is no way or reason to replace new methods of communication.  They are often much more functional and effective than handwritten letters would ever be, and their use is essential to many business operations.  Instead, the reason to consider a handwritten note to a prospect or customers is that it entails a sincere interest in the recipient.  This interest can’t be denied because, regardless of the content, you actually spent the time to write it, stuff it in an envelope, and then mail it.  Most people will appreciate this and remember that you took the time to write it.

The obvious times to send a card are when a customer has made a purchase, or someone referred you to another company.  A thank you card is a great way to show your appreciation.  Less obvious are the times such as after an impromptu meeting with a key decision maker while cold calling.  For example, you are cold calling an office building and you happen to meet a business owner who takes a few minutes to talk with you about their business.  What better way to cement the new relationship than with a card expressing your thanks for their time?

Still, there are other ways in which you can utilize a personal card besides saying thanks.  Like duct tape, a handwritten note has many uses and applications, particularly for the salesperson seeking to build long term relationships with their customers.  One use is to write a card after a service call (or series of service calls) to ask the customer if they are satisfied with the result, and to let them know you are concerned about their business.  A letter beginning with, “I was reviewing your account and saw that you had a service call yesterday…” would have a profound effect on any customer.

A handwritten note is an excellent prospecting tool as well, especially for warming a new potential customer.  It sounds a bit cliché, but the number of salespeople writing cards to prospects is so few today that it will definitely garner the attention of your prospects.  The key in this type of note is to make it relevant to their company.  Send a card that references an article that you read about their company, and how it could relate to your business.  You could also consider a card of congratulations.  For example, many business newspapers display employee promotions for local companies, or if a company has recently been awarded a big contract.  Heartfelt congratulations for their success will always be reciprocated.

One underutilized way to use cards is to ask for your prospects help after you lose a sale.  A card like this asks the customer to give advice on what you could have done differently to win their business.  A card that reads something like, “So that I can improve my sales skills, is there anything I could have done differently to win your business?”  The effects of this type of card are so strong that they can change the course of the lost sale, and cause the customer to re-evaluate their decision.  If this happens once in your career, it will be worth every card you had sent.

In summary, technology is always improving the speed and manner in which we communicate.  Professional salespeople must adapt to these new technologies in order to remain competitive and in sync with their customers.  However, don’t neglect the obvious - people buy from people, and that writing a basic, handwritten note of appreciation will put you above all other competitors and be a foundation upon which you can build a relationship with your clients.

Need more help writing a personal note?  Read Business Notes by Florence Isaacs.

Jeff Pitney is a long time veteran of the document imaging industry and has worked in both sales and sales management capacities for manufacturers and independent dealers alike. Jeff also runs Pitney Application Design, building websites and custom integrations for web-based solutions.

For those of you fanboys (and fangirls) of FireFox 3, this post is for you:

As many of my valued readers might know, I have been following various social media outlets for a few months, with some mixed results.

Let me be frank when I say that I think there is a log of egotistical stuff going on in the world of social media, but I have met some really nice people through channels like Twitter, FriendFeed, Plurk, and so on.

Twitter, in specific, is rather interesting in that I typically post little observations or aggravations about the world at large. For those of you that don’t know what Twitter is, it is what is termed as a micro-blogging site; more to the point, it is a way for you to post little tidbits in 140 words or less.

So it was that I found myself aggravated with some goings on of FF3. It would at some points sieze up, or not allow CAPTCHA’s to be displayed properly on some blogs… This was rather frustrating.

So I blabbed about it on Twitter - and Firefox Answered.

At first firefox_answers gave me what I thought was a mundane answer, uninstall your plug-ins…

“Gee, really? What fantastic advice,” I said… and got a response back. In fact, I got several responses back, much quicker than any of the other twitterers (yes that is what they are called).

… and I ended up enjoying some crow to go with my serving of humble pie - because even though the plugin was only meant to help render FriendFeed a little more cleanly - it stepped on some other pages toes.

Here are the take-aways:

1. Those companies in Tech using social media to talk with their customers are very savvy.
2. Social media used in this fashion creates a very warm customer experience.
3. I should quit thinking I know everything about technology just because I’m in technology - and be a little more humble when instructed to do something by the official semi-official Mozilla FireFox Twitter Technical Support Account.

… it was a plug-in … come on cut me some slack!

So I’m changing my default browser back to FF3 to look for some more flaws… I know, great attitude right? Well, now I have @firefox_answers.