Top 25 Programming Errors
February 27, 2009
Mke sure your development team has read them.
‘Nuff Said
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
How Much Data Can You Afford To Lose?
February 26, 2009
What critical data are you backing up every day?
But more important; When are you backing it up?
Just overnight? Or does last person out the door hit ’start’?
What is that data worth to you?
Is that A lot of questions?
Yes it is, and you should have the answers.
Because as important as backing up your data is. It is important to look at how much data you are willing to lose.
Why do I want to lose anything at all!
If something critical dies and you have to resort to going to your backup tapes to get it back. Well, by definition you will only have your data up to the time that backup was made.
If you accidentally delete that plan you were working on for the last few days, getting it back from last night’s backup tape may not be critical, it may mean some frustrated rewriting of what you did today.
But what if it was your point of sale data? Sure, you can restore it from last nights backup tape, but every sales transaction you made today is gone!
Can you redo all of that?
What is that data worth to you if you no longer have it?
Can it be recreated manually some way?
So, what is that data worth?
If it is not worth much, less frequent backup is perfect.
If it is worth the business. Maybe a little more often!
As Managers in the SME space, we may think we are covered by our current backup strategy – but ask your self truly – are you?
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
Photo Credit zizzybaloobah
Real SMB IT: Operational Vs. Strategic Costs
February 25, 2009
Business of all sizes ond types are looking at reducing costs.
For small / medium business managers, Reducing the cost of IT can, and should be part of this.
Operational Vs. Strategic
But in reducing IT spending, determine if the cut is an operational issue that can be deferred, or a strategic issue that should be maintained.
Put simply – if it is money that affects generating revenue, it is strategic and should be left alone. If it is something that could *improve* revenue generation, go for it.
Upgrading technology can be defferred
Look at investing in retiring that little used application – the cost may be more than the benefit it provides.
Don’t Forget the Basics
February 25, 2009
I had a tech support issue that made me think of this – more on that shortly.
Lets imagine something!
In the developed world, we are all familiar with the automobile. Even if you do not have a driving licence, you know what a car is, and some of its basics.
So when we teach a new driver, we impart knowledge of the rules of the road, and the physical skills necessary to move 2 tons of glass and steel safely down that road.
But if we imagine that we were parachuted into a country where the only vehicles ever seen are UN relief convoys and military vehicles?
Can we still teach someone to drive using our familiar methods?
Maybe someone who does not even know that you have to unlock the door to get into the car?
Perhaps they have never seen any key – let alone an ignition key?
I think not.
You have to back up, and go back to the basics.
My Support Issue
A business that we purchase a hosted online service from did a significant upgrade, or rewrite, of the web based administrative tool used to manage the service.
With the new interface I could not find the procedure to do a particular administrative task.
So I sent an email to their support.
The response?
It was 1 line with 2 three letter acronyms and an obtuse phrase. My reponse was basically ‘what the hell does that mean?‘
It turned out that the 3 letter acronyms were the first three letters of the particular web pages I had to use.
The SMB takeaway?
This is not just a tech issue, perhaps your sales staff considers parts A, B,& C of your offering so obvious that it does not get mentioned.
But it may not be that obvious to your customer.
Communication does not happen until the receiving party understands what you are saying.
I think that if you took a hard look at what you are saying, you may find that forgetting something basic leaves room for error and mis-understanding.
Have you ever come across one?
Photocredit mtlin
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
Change Needs You, Or It Fails
February 24, 2009
Change is hard.
And I think it is doubly hard when there is a technology aspect to it.
As Michael Fillios writes here, Change is the heart more than the head.
It may be that sales rep keeping a shoebox full of contact information, or a software coder who refuses to document, it is a people issue, it is an emotional issue.
I don’t claim to have the answers.
Because it is something that I still have to work a on a daily basis.
The SMB Takeaway
As hard as change can be, it will be harder if you as the leader don’t embrace change.
If you do not support change clearly, the message to the people in your organization will be that change does not matter.
That the way we always do it around here will live on.
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
NOTE: It was a snowy Sunday a few weeks ago when I cobbled this together, I was sitting watching feathery creatures flit around the yard (image), since then, a few other blogs have articulated the challenge with change, so for some linky goodness;
Olivier Blanchard with Dealing with agents of un-change and Abandon Yesterday
And Vaughan Merlyn’s series of posts; Marketing and Leading Organizational Change
Real SMB IT: On Being Found
February 24, 2009
Can You Be Found?
I was looking for a particular service in my area.
I hit the search engines and and tried to find a local business doing the job I was looking for.
But I could not find them. There wasn’t even one.
It Was Only Chance
A couple of days later I got a flyer in my mail box from a small business that does perform the service I was looking for. In fact they were about 5 blocks away.
But via the Web, I could not find them.
Period.
Once I had called them, we discussed it. In this case this business owner is at least aware of it – and is working on fixing it. So he is ahead of the game.
Are you?
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
An Insidious Disease
February 23, 2009
Last week I wrote a post referencing Tim Walkers Watch out for chokepoints! In that post I wrote that IT can be a key bottleneck in those chokepoints.
Both directly, and indirectly.
In the comments to that post, Mr. Walker noted that when it comes to indirect chokepoints;
..indirect ones are far more insidious, like a wasting disease.
He is absolutely correct.
This indirect chokepoint is simply process waste.
This concept is nothing new, Michael Hammer and James Champy wrote a best seller about it almost 20 years ago; Reengineering The Corporation.
Here’s the Problem
In most cases, these process waste problems are invisible. People don’t recognize that the many steps, handoffs, and pieces of work that they perform are wasting time, money, and efficiency.
And unless you as a SME manager are involved, no one will care about it.
It is not like this waste is going to instantly sink your big deal or contract, it is just slow, leaking, wasted time and money.
And IT can’t do much about it.
These type of insidious diseases cannot be fixed by your technology staff or provider on their own. Because even if they do see it. Fixing it must be driven from the top.
A Real World Example
Using Microsoft Sharepoint Team Services (the freely available addition to licensed copies of MS Windows Server, not the full MS Office Sharepoint Server) I built three applications to remove that type of process waste.
Of those three applications, one of them has been successful, one was successful for a short period of time, the third was never used.
Here is why
The successful tool that I built was a brand new request – a manager needed to solve a new issue. So there was no fighting the way we always done it around here….
For the second one, another manager who was aware of our process issues worked with his team to do some process improvement on the old ad hoc process as it existed – this worked well until he left after about a year. His internally promoted replacement just let it go into misuse – back to the old way we always do it around here.
For the third, even though I had provided it, and demonstrated how it would reduce rework, and decrease wasted time, the divisional manager liked it but did not drive using it – and everyone on that team were too comfortable with the way we always do it around here.
The Lesson
Some things can bubble up from the grass roots.
But change can’t.
With this type of insidious waste, while technology can help remove it, technologists cannot do it alone – because it is change, and change must be driven from the top.
It requires strategic management of your IT. Not a tactical plan.
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
Email Marketing – Yer Doin it Wrong
February 23, 2009
Dear %%FIRST_NAME%% %%LAST_NAME%%,
Date: Friday, February 27, 2009
Time: 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET
Duration: One Hour
Register Here Instantly
I don’t think I was supposed to get that email that way.
Do You?
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
Sales, HR, They All Count
February 22, 2009
I had the opportunity to work with a cross functional team a year or so ago. The team consisted of IT, HR, and sales professionals.
In this excersize, we were looking at a single unit (large end of the mid-market space in size) within a truly large organization.
The Issue Was Supposed To be Technology
The organization was having difficulty getting a knowledge management initiative to take root in their organization.
The initiative was desirable because information was in silo’s, and extensive amounts of time were lost in searching for, redoing, or looking for previously performed work.
The recommendation, wasn’t technology
There was a tech component, but our recommendation was nothing to with that.
It was selling
It was the sales and marketing of the benefit.
No Tech Required.
You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS icon on the Home Page!
