Rob's a blog gin'

You know your business? You know what makes your product sell? You know what makes you more effective?


Right...?


Wrong..! When it comes down to it, if you don't produce what your customer wants, then there are a thousand other organisations that will step in and take your business.

Rob Wendes Information Technology Consultant 18th July 2008

Even Big boys blunder



It makes everyone sigh in relief when a giant makes a mistake, showing that they are just as human as the rest of us. Coca cola made one of their biggest in 1985 when they were chasing Pepsi's lead with the younger generation. It seemed to Coke that all they had to do was do the research, come up with the product and that youngsters would beat a path to their products door.

This might have been the case, but they put all of their eggs in on basket when they launched 'New coke' as their one unique brand.

Backlash, is the mildest of words that describes the furore that followed, when loyal fans of the brand started deserting wholesale. It was such a disaster that Coke were forced to introduce 'Classic Coke' to woo people back to the fold.


Working out what users want

What they didn't work out was what their end users really wanted. It cost them $40Million to learn this lesson, when perhaps it would have been easier to ask them in the first place!

Business owners and decision makers, who produce and use software applications, need to keep focussed on the people who will ultimately consume their product. There is little point in producing what you think is the right product, when it doesn't meet the needs of the people who will use it.

You can produce as many technical specifications as you like in an attempt to capture what it is that you want to deliver, but in the final analysis it will do no good if these specifications are off the mark. You will end up with a disillusioned customer, little repeat work and no referrals!

Working Smart


It's time for you to work smart, by involving the people who will use the technology you are providing in its development. Technology that doesn't complement the customers' business will be destined for the scrapheap before it is delivered. The end users will resist its introduction and consequently the customer will not see the benefits.

This doesn't mean that the vendor becomes a quivering wreck at the first sighting of a customer, falling prostrate at their feet, far from it. Because customers rarely know exactly what they need, you need a process that helps you to help them.


Keeping quiet

Customers usually say nothing. That's because they don't have to! If the product that is served up to them does not fit the bill, then they can just go elsewhere and get a different service at a different price.

You might be in love with your product, and your salesmen might believe in it; but just as with 'New Coca Cola', it takes more than love to sell a product. You have to find a connection with what the customer wants.

You need help if you don't understand what your end user needs. If you are either a software vendor who is out of tune with your customer, or a customer who doesn't know how to get the product that your users need then I can help. Visit my site.

From time to time a winning team will lose its edge and complicate the problems in your business. This article examines why that is and how to help prevent it happening.

Rob Wendes Information Technology Consultant 11th July 2008

I used to find exams really taxing, especially when I was young. I would work really hard with my revision, piling in exercises that would test my ability to retain and work out solutions to problems. The first few examinations were always a breeze, and I could almost guarantee good results, but I used to dread the examinations that came late in the timetable.

The more I worked hard the less it seemed that my brain retained, and at times I found that it gave up and just wouldn't work anymore.

I used to really struggle with the later exams, and although I did well, I always wondered what I could do to improve my lot. My course studies would be directed by whichever subjects came early in the exam curriculum and this used to puzzle my teachers, who would tell me that I had aptitude, but that I seemed a little ramdom when it came to the final exam.

If I were doing them again, I would be able to tell my teachers why, and in fact I did work it out soon after leaving secondary education.

As an organ the brain is an amazing thing. It undertakes complex calculations, reasoning, fuzzy logic and a whole host of primary motive functions that we all take for granted. It is, however, quite true that it does sometimes 'get out of whack', often through exhaustion but sometimes because it has nothing to feed on.

Your business runs on the people whom you employ, and it's their brains that you rely on for judgement and to push your business interests forward. If their brains are not working to tip-top performance then your bu8siness will suffer. Everyone's brain needs three things:-

Brain food

This doesn't just mean you should eat celery and fresh vegetables, but that a rich and varied diet of information puts you in a position to challenge and question what people are telling you. I know its tough, but the brain does better of it has plenty of background data on which to draw when its making a decision.

Relaxation

I can't think how many times I've been stuck in a problem, and tried to force my brain to work something out, only to find that when I went away and just relaxed, that the answer popped out of nowhere.


Even our brains get tired, and social interaction, reading a novel, taking in a play or just playing will stop your brain throbbing with fatigue. Even the most advanced computers work on jobs in the background, popping out the answer at some later date. It's much the same way with your brain. When its relaxing it works away at your problem in the background, and eventually, hey presto, it works out what you need to do!

Exercise

Just like you take your body down the gym, so you should do the same with your brain as well! Take a trip to

www.fitbrains.com and exercise your brain. After a few visits you will be surprised how well your brain feels. Take a brain fitness test today.

If you and your team make your brains work for you then you will make better decisions that knock on to your business. Fit collective brains are better than worn out thinking. Act today to get rid of the garbage in your organisations brain.

What is it that makes one business bloom where others stagnate?

Do you sometimes feel that you could get more from your business?

Why do some businesses struggle to keep their head above water?

Start a revolution to really make your business boom


Rob Wendes Information Technology Consultant 4th July 2008

The introduction of the steam engine in the 18th century brought with it the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the UK. It was a great leap forward and created a sea change in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation. It's hard to conceive what it was like to travel around the planet before these innovations, since it would have been a long and dangerous adventure.


A second revolution gained pace about a hundred years later, with the introduction of the railways, and later the internal combustion engine and electricity generation.


Each revolution heralded times of wealth and good times for innovative business, with the winners being those who grasped the nettle and exploited the technology at the right point in history. The list goes on with the introduction of the tractor, right up to date with those who have exploited the Internet.


There is a clear pattern, with those who take that extra little risk being the ones who capitalise on the revolution.


Many businesses do not see this meteoric rise, and that is because they prefer the comfort of evolution rather then revolution. It is more comfortable to dip the corporate toe in the ocean of technology rather than taking a bold move that places the organisation in the vanguard.


How does your organisation take on new technology? Most businesses chip away at it, taking a little bite of the cherry learning a little and then taking the next byte, so that your knowledge evolves over a long period of time. That's evolution, and evolution never wins against revolution.


Evolution lends itself to steady, stifled growth that doesn't allow the vibrancy of the world to infect it. If you wanted to learn to become and artist and paint pictures, you could do it by reading a book, and by allowing your knowledge to grow over a period of time, and that is evolution.


But by being immersed with others in a course devoted to the subject of art, you would learn faster with a more rounded education. Others will ask the questions you never thought of. Your teacher will pose the problems that will make you go 'Ahhh that's what happens with shadows, clouds or backgrounds'. That's a revolution that will change the way you think forever!


Business owners and decision makers need revolution in their businesses to make them grow and to make them exciting vibrant places to work in. Revolution is where you shake the whole thing upside down and look at your business from a new perspective.


Once or twice a year I do the same, and learn from the revolution that is happening around us. I've learned more from one or two sessions that take me out of my space that I could from evolving over the next ten years.


Learning how other people work stimulates new ideas and brews up your next revolution.


Use a revolution, not evolution,  to make your business boom.

Software As a Service is the new kid on the
block. But does it deliver everything that it
claims?


Are the savings real or illusory?

Why buy your own software when you can rent it from
someone else? Let's take a look and see if
it's that straightforward.

27th June 2008

I used to love playing the game of
conkers.For those of you who dont have conker trees
(horse chestnut See UK
Safari) you are missing a treat) although it's questionable
whether its good for the tree itself. Every Autumn as a boy I would way
for the conkers
to fall from the trees.

Everyone would hoard them because they had a
sort of bartering value, especially if a conker had been
shown to be a winner or champion conker. These prized possessions would
be coveted and used to buy and sell goods (often without our parent's
approval), and the moer enterprising would set up a conker bank which
was used as a clearing house for conkers.

This last exploit did raise its own
problems. If you put your conkers in the conker bank you
did need to mark them in some way, and you were never sure that someone
else wouldn't get their hands on your valueable
prize. Indeed, the conker banker would sometimes go
absent, with your conkers, which meant that you would forfeit a game or
slide down the conker league!

Software As a Service falls quite neatly into
this category, especially since organisations are
finding that they need a diverse number of software tools to be
effective.

What SaaS aims to do it to provide you a
software service that removes the need for buying your own
applications. A free example of that is the venerableGmail which provides
anyone a mail account which can be accessed through a web browser
anywhere in the world. The argument seems compelling. After all you are
getting a service that you would otherwise pay for, together with the
convenience of no maintenance and the bonus of global access through a
simple web browser.

What could be simpler? Google
will go even further by offering Google docs and Google photos. The
offering seems too good to be true. On-demand services for absolutely
nothing!

But there are a couple of drawbacks.Some countries still operate their Internet servvices as
a dial-up service, especially away from the central city hubs. although
this problem is receding, you might be surprised to be orphaned from
the Internet in many Guest houses in the UK. I was in Stornoway last
week!

The biggest problem that busines sowners and
decision makers face, is that someone else is the banker
for their data. You might think that is a small deal. But consider all
of the sensitive information about clients and contracts that would be
managed by a third party if you were to use a third party Customer
Relations Management system. Wouldn't you be putting your valueable
information in the hands of a data banker,
in much the same way that I did with my conkers?

Some information may not be
sensitive, so for instance, I use Gmail for
non-sensitive e-mail, but never for business transactions.

I would never consider putting sensitive data in
the hands of a data banker, because no matter how high
their integrity, they will spill the beans if the authorities ask them
to, and also you would be very vulnerable if you chose to change
supplier

Choose Saas wisely, and never
allow your sensitive information into the hands of the 'conker
banker'.

Too many people these days avoid a direct answer to a question.

You only have to listen to the radio or TV to hear politicians the world over completely avoid the question they have been asked by answering in a positive but vague way.

So how can that affect your business?

20th June 2008

Being a romantic, I wanted to treat my wife to a special meal at our local restaurant. We had been there before, and although they didn't know us too well , they would recognise us by sight.



I 'phoned up for an early evening table (we like to move on to other things) and was greeted by a charming lady who, by her voice, may have been of Italian extraction. I asked for 7:00 p.m. on the following Friday, and she said 'No problem', but didn't take my name.


I asked her if she wanted my name and a telephone number to confirm the booking, but she declined, telling me that at they don't take bookings that early in the evening because it wouldn't be busy.


In the event, when we arrived, you guessed it, they had a party in and although the evening wasn't spoilt it definitely took a downturn. It was sad to have to be politely insistent, and after a wait and a drink at the bar we did make that dinner date, although it wasn't what either of us expected.

What went wrong? Well I went wrong when I didn't make sure I got the booking before I rang off. I didn't get commitment.

Chatting to a client, the other day, it became clear to me that he was suffering the same fate. He had become used to asking his development team 'How's it going' in a casual way, because he felt that it conveyed unity and trust.

In fact he generally got the answer 'fine, its going fine', which he intimated to be just that. Of course it wasn't really fine, and in fact he suffered from delays and development problems that he hadn't expected, giving him sleepless nights and funding problems as the development budget got eaten up.

If developers and their managers aren't asked directly and unambiguously what the situation is, then human nature dictates an answer that matches (read fuzzy).

So instead of stopping at the phrase 'how's it going', why not press on until you get a firm commitment.

'How's it going?'

'When will it be finished?'

'That's the 3rd July?'

'And you will have finished development and testing?'

'All the bugs will be ironed out?'

'Your committed to that date?'

Even if some of the answers you get are not what you want to hear, you will be in a much better situation to handle the situation than if you just accepted their fuzzy answers.

To get commitment plan to ask for it. Make sure that you don't accept an ambiguous reply and keep asking until you get confirmation.

If you fail to get commitment at every stage of your endeavour you leave everything to fate. By asking politely but persistently for a clear and unambiguous reply to your enquiry you will avoid the disaster that bunches up as your project progresses.