The World. The Web. Just That Much Smaller.
In July of 2008, Google announced on its blog the Web was a big place. That’s probably not much of surprise to anyone reading this.
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In 1998, Google’s index contained 26 million pages.
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By 2000, the index reached 1 billion pages.
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This year, Google announced its engines have discovered over 1 trillion unique URLs.
As if you needed more evidence, U.S. companies produced over 4.3 trillion pages from document output devices last year alone. Information is being produced and consumed at staggering rates.
Recently, one speaker I heard commented on the last century’s rapidly spiraling rate of information growth.
He stated the amount of information up until 1900 could be measured as a 1 inch bar on a graph. He went on to say the information gathered from 1900 to 1950 could be measured as a 2 inch bar on the same graph, while the information presently available would measure as high as the Washington Monument. That would be 6,665.5 inches, or 555 feet, 5.5 inches tall.
Connecting the Dots:
I have discussed some of these trends in the technology and business worlds – and specifically how the ever-increasing amount of information has become hard to digest:
The true winners will be those who are able to connect the dots and fund innovations geared to lessen the visible complexity, enhance efficiencies, and/or create real-dollar cost savings.
In fact, IBM would say most of their customers are concerned with consumability: the abstraction of complex technology to the end-user, while surfacing only enough of the interface necessary to help the end-user achieve their objectives.
Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “I don’t care how the car starts, I just want to stick the key in and be able to go get my latte.”
What You Were Looking For:
How do you find what it is you need on the web?
Of course I started this article with one of the most prevalent ways in which people search for information, Google. Google has brought such an impact to our world in the last decade, the company’s name has become a verb – synonymous with search.
While there are perhaps many examples of how complex technology is helping you, one recently caught my attention - that of social media.
While Google found an unserved opportunity in search, the long tail of software has evolved from dozens of markets with millions of users to that of millions of markets with dozens of users (source, IBM GTO, 2008).
Social media is the logical conclusion of all of the voices attempting to be heard, to be found, and ultimately seeking resonance.
And so conversations continue across media outlets, blogs and the Web-space in general - proliferating with exponential frequency. Content is being created, being expanded upon, and being echoed back.
Turn Down the Volume:
Simply searching through Google, or the like, just wasn’t enough. Even early adopters would even have trouble scouring such a wide swath of content in search of meaning and connection.
With such a volume of information, more refined mechanisms of search had to be created; more meaningful conversations could only be had when people were connected to one another, and those involved would need to be able to dial-up or dial-down the amount of information being consumed – based upon individual need or desire.
What I have witnessed is one writer beginning a thought while another finishes it – without even knowing the other had started the conversation in the first place. In another instance, you might see a small community of bloggers holding almost identical conversations to one another without knowledge or thought of the other.
The Connection:
All it takes is a connection – something or someone to draw a line between the dissonant parties. Thus the power of the web, and social media specifically, are realized in small but meaningful chunks.
With the advent of services such as Twitter and FriendFeed the momentum of discovery has accelerated, and even new bloggers like me are able to gain access to meaningful connections after only a relatively short time.
There remains much work to be done before these services can satisfy the needs of the masses, but the foundations have been laid. After all, the Web is a big place; but with your help, your voice, your connection it can become just that much smaller.
(Originally posted for LouisGray.com)
Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.
Automated Meter Collection Deserves a Closer Look
It’s month end close and the engine is running high RPM’s. The sales team is turning in deal upon deal, our installation teams are working in overdrive to close up both large and small installations, and the administrative team is bringing all of the billing due to close out the month. The numbers are looking solid.
To offer some background, we have established an end-to-end program as part of a phased initiative to drive down costs while driving up customer and team member satisfaction. The first phase is simply automating a tedious process of collecting “meters” from our managed devices to efficiently bill our client base for management contracts, billing approximately 40% - 50% of our fleet using this technology with the remainder being collected via other semi-automated means. We utilize a SaaS offering called Facilities Manager by Print Audit which I have branded as RemoteFleet, with some help from my colleague Darrell Amy, owner of Dealer Marketing Systems.
These issues were interesting in that they demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding and distrust of the software in play to accommodate this automation. One situation detailed a discrepancy between an internal-use application the customer purchased and our invoice while another demonstrated a disbelief that customer volume might have tripled over a quarterly billing cycle.
The goal here was to not minimize the concern while isolating the cause and ensuring a method for corrective action was applied.
First, let’s clear the air and establish some ground rules:
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The technology delivery is sound: Regardless of what company you use, meter collection has become fairly standardized. I believe more strongly in Print Audit’s offering for various reasons, but there is a base expectation that accuracy is higher now than ever across platforms.
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Manufacturers are still trying: Even though the collection process is becoming more sound, each manufacturer only partially adheres to openly publishing their MIB databases, often citing competitive advantages for keeping certain information close to the chest. The relationships your print management company has with manufacturers is highly important as this helps open communication and ensure the highest level of accuracy.
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I don’t trust it: There is still a distrust of software tools in general, not specific to industry or platform. This underscores a fundamental educational gap, generally. In other words, if I don’t understand how it works, I don’t trust it.
With all of this being said, it is important that your organization be able to cut to the proverbial chase. Before there is a discrepancy, here are a few things that will help you and your company maintain sanity:
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Establish a baseline: If there are questions, establishing a trend line of the account’s utilization can help you avoid heated debates by warning customers and account managers alike of odd behaviors.
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Establish checkpoints: If you are a fan of billing overages in quarterly or bi-annually blocks, ensure you create checkpoints during the billing cycle to ensure usage is on track.
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Automate processes and manage exceptions: With the volume of information pouring in to our businesses, ensure you establish streamlined processes to handle most of your service level agreements and leverage technology that allows you to review variances in this process to avoid unsightly arguments with customers over issues that could’ve been avoided.
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Communication is key: Clearly communicate the process as well as the dispute resolution process to your internal and external customers. It’s important that your team not resort to bickering amongst themselves. Instead, they need to work together to avoid mistakes ahead of time or ensure they are all on the same side of discovering why a mistake was made rather than pointing fingers.
Lastly, who is responsible for the day-to-day of managing your dashboard? If you subscribe to the belief that collecting a meter is every bit as important as selling a deal or servicing a device (and you should), who do you entrust this monumental opportunity to you in your business?
Before you answer, think about what this touches:
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Revenue generation: If you are getting your meters in a timely and accurate manner, you can trust your clients will pay in an timely and accurate manner.
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Proactive management: proactively seeks to curb unneeded billing disputes well ahead of billing due dates.
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Customer-focused: Keep your customers in focus and ensure they trust your company beyond a shadow of a doubt because they have someone working to quickly research any questions or discrepancies that appear.
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Marketing, marketing, marketing: Give this person an opportunity to make some extra cash by signing up more customers to your program. Even though it may cost you in the short term, it will save you so much more if you take the long-view on this. Think of the marketing exposure for someone calling on your customer because they care enough to try and save them some time and hassle. What is that worth to you?
Now, ask yourself, who SHOULD be handling this in your organization?
Image courtesy of Okko Pyykko
Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.
Will Dell’s ProManage Derail Your MPS Strategy?
Today, everything is being monitored. No, I’m not talking about “Big Brother” either. While programs like Tivoli and what used to be called OpenView have been available for quite some time, the costs of managing and monitoring network nodes have come down dramatically - enough for even the smallest of companies to afford.
With tools like Silverback or LogMeIn, affordability is no longer the objection. And now Dell rolls out its newest offering, ProManage Managed Services.
Dell ProManage-Managed Services proactively monitors IT networks 24/7/365 to cut technology costs and complexity, stop downtime and increase employee productivity. Risk-free Dell ProManage-Managed Services start at $9 per month with no upfront investment or long-term contract required
With so many companies looking to cut costs, outsourcing is the new black - again. But it goes beyond just staff augmentation and into skill augmentation. This heralds a larger movement by companies well positioned to off-set specific skills deficits within small-to-medium (SMB) businesses.
What else does this sound like?
Why managed print services (MPS), of course. But what is the offset between managed print services solely focusing upon output device optimization (and possibly some electronic document management) and managing all of the peripherals - and infrastructure?
Perhaps a case can be made either way, but be careful of pitching your “total solution” because against this, it might not be considered so “total” anymore. While you and I both know it’s a horse of a different color, I would leave you with one question:
Is the future of MPS simply a sub-component of the total management architecture a client would desire - or even require?
Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.
Do You Want Easy, Or The Truth? A Wake Up Call About Document Management.
Everyone of us has used an office automation suite. Perhaps you live in some flavor of Microsoft Office, others love Google Docs (still in beta, really?), or maybe you are an OpenOffice or iWorks nut. They all have their various strengths and weaknesses - and all have their valid uses and supporters. What is impressive is the pure productivity enhancements such software has ushered in; Can you imagine not having a word processor, spreadsheet or presentation application?
All of us who have been around a little while saw the fits and starts of office productivity suites before they were really productive, right? But no matter how far they have come and how slick the template wizards are - they don’t write your sales proposal, create your pivot table, or tell you what to say to your customer in that big meeting - do they?
In a word - nope.
So why would it come as a shock to you that your electronic document management system would solve all of your business process issues with a few simple clicks of next, next, and finish? Such a system, can’t folks.
An electronic document management system is just like a hammer or drill. It is designed with a specific purpose. For instance, I can decide to use a hammer to drive a screw into a piece of wood, but at what cost? Will I damage the wood, break the head off of the screw, and blacken my thumb in the process?
Take a step back to your line of business applications. Your ERP system runs your business and CRM/SFA application drives your sales, right? Hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions traverse the complex interactions between user interfaces and database, enforcing your business rules and enhancing your business processes (when/if things are done correctly). When used correctly, any software tool will enhance your business processes, but without overlaying solid business process as the foundation to your solution it will crumble and fall like a proverbial house on the sand. Electronic document management is no different.
Before you start asking why you aren’t getting the return on your investment and rush off to drop your fist on the big red easy button - get up, walk to the bathroom and take a long, hard look in the mirror.
Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.
Form or Function?
How many times throughout your day or week are you asked (or told) to fill out this form? We fill out forms to receive pay, medical attention, and especially when we have to deal with anything relating to our government. I think we have become a bit desensitized to the whole bit personally.
As someone who lives in a world where I must lift out process in chaos, I have to rationalize that on some levels the ability to elicit needed input from an end-user can and will come in the form of - well - a form.
Change control is perhaps one of the more interesting applications for a form in that it combines the two things people subconsciously hate the most: 1) change and 2) documenting the impending pain of change. OK, I’m being a bit melodramatic here, but I can quickly support the decision to document changes, especially in wide-reaching environments where many people are impacted by such a change.
However, often times in my experience filling out a form quickly turns from elicitation of information and documentation of change to simply CYA. You see, we too quickly jump to a form solving our problems and becoming “the process”, and this is a very slippery slope, indeed.
Let me be clear, a form is not a process. It is most certainly can be a crucial part of your process, but we are often guilty of allowing ourselves very little opportunity to vet all objections and recourse for not using the form in the first place; we rationalize the need for the form and minimize the inconvenience placed upon the end-user - our customer.
I’m not here to bash on forms, but I am here to point out an often unchallenged tendency to throw out a form without:
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a true needs analysis,
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interview and elicitation of impact,
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whether the information can be harvested elsewhere leveraging data already in play, and finally
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a clear communication of the entire process (to include benefits) to the customers impacted.
It is really a question of form over function, in the truest sense of this saying. Next time, before you try and emulate our lovely federal and state governments unquenched desire to spew forth forms as an example of “survival of the form-est”, examine the 1-2-3’s of your new process’s requirement to enforce the use of yet another form - pretty please.
Image courtesy of sunshinecity
Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. Ken is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.
Information Management Is About Generating Revenue Not Crunching Numbers
One might argue that we are in a world ripe with potential for information overload. In fact, I often ask whether we are too connected? I don’t think any would argue content is being created at a breakneck pace and demographic information is being harvested by companies across the globe. If you have any question, just look to how ingrained in our culture services such as Google (a marketing company not a search company), Facebook and LinkedIn have become.
With all that being said, data is nice, but whether - and how - you use it is the key. Data points and metrics are coming out of the woodwork; so whether you are utilizing the correct tools to distill data into information should always be in the front of your mind and on the tip of your tongue when phrasing questions about how to get to that meat.
As an overarching guideline, there are a few types of tools each us should have access to in our businesses
1) Productivity Tools
These are tools that help us do our job better, faster, cleaner. Period. End of story. With these unglamorous tools, our day would be mired in the drudgery of how we can get our job done instead of how we can get our job done better.
Think of the leap from postal mail to facsimile (FAX) technology - and then to e-mail. Think of life without your office suite of choice. How would you generate proposals and budgets without word processing and spreadsheet applications? (I think we all might be able to live with a little less presentation software.)
2) Operational Management Tools
With catch phrases like ERP, SCM, SFA/CRM, and BI, operational management tools allow us the opportunity to enforce specific business processes and quickly analyze a wide variety of data points to help us understand where our business has been based upon empirical data. By overlaying where our business has been against where our goals tell we need to be, we can often pinpoint weak spots in our strategies and tactics before they become a systemic failure.
3) Interactivity and Feedback Tools
Many people will instantly jump to a conclusion I’m referencing “social media”. While these valuable tools offer a crucial piece of how our customers want to talk with us, it goes beyond that simplistic facet and into what they are asking of us - what they need us to provide.
Extracting useful information from tools like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, wikis, collaboration sites and interactivity widgets can be a daunting task. However, determining the best course to harvesting this valuable feedback is quite simple - ask where your customers are and interact with them on the medium of their choice; don’t force them to come to you.
Use It or Lose It:
It goes without saying that if you are not tending your data and focused on where it can yield new and as yet unseen perceptions about your business you are missing out. As the saying goes, use it or lose it.
Put bluntly, many business simply think of information management as a chore - as overhead. Your information is the most valuable link to your customers you have, so it should be making you money. Sadly, the reality is that it is costing many of you money in your business each and every day because you don’t view information management as a revenue source.
So the choice is yours. Ask how you can make your business stronger by getting more mileage out of the same old data that keeps passing by your desktop each day on its way to the recycle bin. Hey, look on the bright side. At least you are being green right?
Image courtesy of BY-YOUR
Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. Ken is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.
Is Your MPS Strategy Out of Order?
Managed Print Services is a funny animal. Often referred to by its acronym, MPS seems to defy definition but is many things to many people. Industry pundit and lay person alike can’t quite decide just what MPS is; many VAR’s, dealers, and manufacturers continue to muddy the water slipping in their version of a managed services contract and trademarked buzzwords.
While many see this as one of the greatest opportunities in our industry since the leap from analog to digital, never before has there truly been an opportunity for both the industry and customer to join together in an actual win-win solution to a common problem. However, very few independent dealers and even fewer manufacturers seem to have made the leap from "box-selling" to consultative-selling, an effort to truly understand the needs customers have below the surface.
As a customer, choosing a partner can be very daunting, and there really isn’t a lot of information available to really help the customers, dealers, and manufacturers talk the same language when seeking to choose between various aspects of the program. In fact, I would say the biggest challenge facing the companies attempting to put together a program is just how to operationalize the various tools and theories at play; this rings true for both customer and partner alike in my humble opinion.
So how do you operationalize your strategy?
Getting to the Bottom Line
In this world of fast-paced, fast-food culture we live in how many of you enjoy a fine dining experience. Now, I’m not necessarily referring to those swanky joints where you have to sip your water with your pinky extended. Not at all.
Instead, think of any dining experience where the atmosphere was just so, the wait staff was always there at the right time and place - and had just what you needed. Think of a time when the food was prepared just so, and you ate just enough; not too much to make you feel stuffed, but you were, well - satisfied. Remember when the company and conversation matched all of that, creating a memory that you fondly rolled through in your mind year after year, making you smile that little knowing smirk?
Is Your Blog Lijit?
After working with the Louis Gray team of writers for the past month or two, I feel like I received a backstage pass to what goes into running a high profile blog. It’s all about the content - and lot’s of it. With all of that content rolling across the front page, valuable content quickly gets pushed down and ultimately to the back of the line. It’s simply the nature of the beast.
This presents a little issue with finding older, but still relevant content. In other words, if you can’t find the content, you won’t read it.
When Louis discussed Lijit, the service had been on my radar for some time as I had become an avid reader of Micah Baldwin’s blog. I had been skeptical of using the service as I already a well placed search tool and two stat packages running in the background.
I had recently completed the migration to a new WordPress theme by Brian Gardner. I was very particular about choosing a theme with specific positioning of the RSS subscription link and search window, and I did not want to jeopardize the integrity of the site.
I reasoned that visitors to my blog would not adopt Lijit’s very slick tool, the Search Wijit, simply because many would naturally migrate to the search window placed within the masthead of the site.
Luckily, the Lijit development team had already thought about that. Lijit allows you to choose to install the Lijit Wijit or hijack your existing search bar. Given that I wanted to protect the integrity of the design, I chose to hijack my search bar. In other words, I allowed the Lijit code to embed behind the theme search bar.
But when I chose the hijack option, it hijacked more than my search bar!
I e-mailed Micah, and asked him what I should do. He immediately e-mailed back with some advice, and we eventually decided to e-mail support. A few days went by, and I received a wonderful e-mail from Jacqueline following up on my installation of Lijit.
I informed her the installation was quite easy, but I was still having some troubles with hijacking my search bar. I immediately received an e-mail back from Ben who informed me the issue had been addressed, and I simply had to uncheck a simple check box within the Wijit options. It worked like a dream! Lijit is now legit on ChangeForge.
The Take-Away:
An important lesson here could be learned from this experience. Even though it took a few days to have my overall issue resolved - and the support group themselves did not immediately address the issues, the consistent communication from Micah and Jacqueline kept me a happy customer the entire time.
While it might be nice to solve problems very quickly, this is often not feasible logistically. Instead, your customers will greatly appreciate the over-communication while you and your teams work to solve their issue. As the book Raving Fans states, it’s important to be consistent in delivering customer service. Lijit demonstrated this through the simple process of Jacqueline conducting a simple follow-up.
Lijit is not only focused on helping your audience search your content, Lijit is focused on helping their customers find great value and realizes that technology without great customer service just isn’t that great.
By the way, Micah, I won’t hold it against you that Jacqueline really wears the pants in the Lijit family!
Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To connect with Ken, you may visit him at DandyID.
Is SharePoint Pointing the Finger at You?
In an earlier post, I outlined some of the disadvantages of SharePoint as a document management system, from my perspective. Even with these disadvantages in place, SharePoint has quickly racked up over $1 billion in software licensing sales, and continues to track towards widespread deployment. This is both a blessing and curse for electronic document management (EDM) vendors as it both raises awareness of the need to move beyond traditional file structures while encroaching in the sales territory of the traditional EDM provider.
The big question is whether your company has a SharePoint strategy?
The game is changing:
InformationWeek detailed Microsoft’s plan to discontinue it’s PerformancePoint Server, including high-end Business Intelligence (BI) tools, instead moving to bundle a subset of the suite’s features into the SharePoint collaboration platform.
According to IW, Microsoft isn’t canning the package due to poor sales. Revenues reportedly grew by 15% to $533 million in 2007 (IDC), ranking fourth in BI revenues. According to Kristina Kerr (lead Microsoft BI product manager), Microsoft’s vision is “BI for the masses.”
Why does this affect me?
If you haven’t already figured it out, Microsoft continued to bundle more “free” offerings into an already dominant platform. From the back-office to the front-office, Microsoft has a compelling case for seamless (well as seamless as Microsoft gets) integration from your Microsoft Office suite all the way through to your ERP reporting.
This will increasingly position SharePoint as the platform to link all business applications and documents together whereas many EDM applications simply attempt to either be an electronic filing cabinet or, at best, image-enable your ERP solution and enable more advanced workflow routing.
Take away the ability for SharePoint to steal your business…
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, SharePoint is something many companies will hear about one way or another. Maybe it will come bundled as part of an offering from another service provider, and maybe their CEO will see it at a local Chamber meeting and decide that’s a very cost effective intranet solution for his or her company.
Either way, it’s no longer coming… It’s here. Are you ready?
Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To connect with Ken, you may visit him at DandyID.
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ChangeForge... a catalyst to affect the paradigm by Ken Stewart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.changeforge.com. -
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