One customer at a time

I've been thinking a lot lately about what i love about my job.  Essentially I help customers figure out what the right technology is for their business.  I sell it to them and then help them plan out their technology budgets and strategy for the future.  I've been doing this for over 15 years so why not try something new?  Why technology?  Why not stocks and bonds or siding or health care?  I'm naturally curious and I've had many jobs: bag boy, SA cashier, Bus Boy, Bell hop, Construction, Pizza delivery guy, Telemarketing, Account manager, Post closing loan guy.....o yeah, Computer lab guy at UW Eau Claire.  There were others but I think you get the general idea. 

I've figured out there are 2 things that make this really fun and ignite my passion for the work. 1. constanly learning new technologies.  I get to have my mind and life renewed through consistent growth 2. Shareing them with my customers and prospects in a way that helps them improve their businesses and therefore thier lives. 


I recently finished the book "Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316316962/gladwellcom. 
The book talks about what makes a market tip.  It says that these tipping points are influenced by a few key different types of people.  One of the types of people mentioned is a "connector" this person is loosely connected with lots of different people so when they learn about something new that is really great they are able to spread the news about it very quickly and this is one of the elements that causes the market to tip.  I guess in some ways I'm a connector.  A lot of people tell me they were thinking about calling me but I always call them first....and that they were glad I kept in touch. We are not always talking tech either.  I like just keeping up with their lives.  I'm facinated with what each individual faces in their personal and professional lives.  I think we all have something we can learn from eachother.  We can be a blessing to eachother everyday by listening and sharing ideas and encouragement.

I feel like a lot of technology providers are only interested in making their products tip without really knowing or caring about their customers struggle.  These companies want to have their customers make an investment in the latest tech solution without any connection to the customers real business challenges and therefore solutions.  So, thats why I've landed on the phrase "One customer at a time".  I really think what I have to offer is the best.  I know we can help our customers.  But If I don't truly care about my customers perspective and challenges and I only want to make my month then to me...its meaningless. 

I realize I sound a bit idealistic.  Trust me....I know the importance of an agressive sales plan and financial objectives that are met and exceeded.  I'm all for sound planning and execution.  I'm just saying that without the "One customer at a time" approach I don't think technology providers can have long term success. I think the companies that Tip the market are those that know their customers real challenges and address them with cost effective, viable forward looking solutions.

Thanks  ~pz

Value in voice

Now that I've been back in the voice game for a couple of years I've had a chance to reformulate my opinions about this market.  I've been working with all different sizes of customers on voice solutions.  More specifically VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone systems and the connections to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

You'd never guess but..........nothing has really changed.  Sure the way that the phone call is getting from one place to another has changed.  The types of devices we are talking on has changed.  The way we interact with each other has changed.  What has not changed?  The need for value.  The need for excellent service providers. The need for a true consultative approach.  I guess I'm kind of predictable and I'm sorry for that.  I've seen product after product in the technology market become a "commodity".  Then I've watched as countless companies go to consume these products only to find out that nothing works quite like "they" said it would.  You can go online and search for VOIP providers and find all sorts of low cost options.  If your office is small and not growing these may serve you well.  Depending on your business model.  When your business grows to a point of true reliance on the VOIP solution you will expose it's weaknesses.

Don't get me wrong.  I get that startups have limited dollars to work with and will have to make sacrifices.  I support that.  I did that with my first business.  I'm speaking more to the established businesses that have established budgets to work with.

I'm seeing that even though VOIP is effective its not simple.  Long term perspective is required to make the right choices with your technology dollar.  It's important to consider the overall impact on the IT resources and network.  What happens if the internet goes down?  If the firewall crashes?  If someone gets a virus?

What I've seen is that some companies in the market are taking a commodity approach to selling these products "turnem and burnem"  others still know they are building long term relationships.  They are working to become the trusted advisor.  The second approach is the one I support.

Thanks for reading ~pz

WPC 2010 - Worldwide Partner Conference - July 11-15, 2010

Love watching Steve Balmer. He's always inspired. I'm encouraged by what he has to say. Microsoft will continue to give Google a run for their money

WPC 2010 - Worldwide Partner Conference - July 11-15, 2010

Interesting News about Microsoft

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20012806-245.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

SEC and FINRA compliance

Recently I've had the opportunity to work with one of my customers helping them get ready for bringing a dealer broker group into their business.  This means that they will need to be SEC and FINRA compliant in their IT practices.  I have to say its been an interesting journey.  I've come to really appreciate the value of Email archiving.  I've also gained an appreciation for the size of the job these Two regulatory agencies have to do.  After the recent recession a lot of people have been critical about the regulation of our financial markets and rightfully so.  We've said there needs to be more accountability and more historical tracking of information.  We expect the organizations responsible for our dollars to be able to go back in time and find information about transactions, conversations and agreements among other things.

I'm happy to report that the IT industry has stepped up with tools that will make that a possibility.  The question is, how quickly will these businesses adopt the new technologies?  I think that they will do it because they have to.  I think they will because the cost of not doing it is too high.  This started me thinking about what other industries should require this kind of compliance.  I think education and healthcare will be next.

I discovered in my research that the legal cost of email discovery is 50% of the total when dealing with legal problems where email is involved.  With the new email archiving tools that are available that could help companies reduce risk and cost considerably.  I'm always encouraged when IT solution providers find a way to make business more efficient and help them save money.

Thanks for reading ~pz 


 

File Storage

It's funny how things never really change that much.  10 years ago the first thing I was dealing with was customer's electronic file storage and sharing challenges.  Now the challenge is still one of the main things I help my customers figure out.  The basic problem is that we have all this electronic information.  Some of it is important.  Some of it is private.  a lot of it is not worth hanging on to but we don't have the time to figure out which is which.

Today their are a lot of great new ways to address this problem.  Microsoft has taken their products put them in the cloud they are called Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite or BPOS for about  $10.00 per user per month. (http://www.managedsolution.com/CloudSolutions/thirtydaytrial.html) Google is providing Google Apps or more specifically Google Doc's and this comes standard with a free google account or the $4.75 per month per user price will get you their premium solution.  (http://docs.google.com/demo/edit?id=scAAFE2hvYCWG-9BtSKhcMXGD#document)

These tools are unique in that they will allow you to create your entire company file storage and email solution in the cloud.   The entry price is low so it's easy and painless to get on board.  There have been several large organizations that have adopted these solutions and there is definitely an ROI to be achieved.  So why are more small and medium businesses not diving in to this solution?

I've been using Google docs for over a year now as a personal solution and it works great. I'm also equally confident in the Microsoft solution.  I think that there is a great unknown that a lot of business can't get past.  What if things change?  What if these big players decide they want to change the price, or the platform or the whole game?  it could really cause some discomfort for a small or medium business that had just moved on board.  For those companies I wholeheartedly support the traditional client server model where the company installs a server and joins the computers up to the domain and keeps everything local.  (except the backup...but thats another blog for another day).

Bottom line is that there are more solutions than ever to provide secure shared storage of files.

Thanks ~pz

Overcomming challenges in Technology

One of the greatest challenges a small growing company will face in improving their technology will be the getting a healthy perspective on how to invest in technology.  When we started our company we got by on used stuff.  Our firs sever was purchased of ebay.  our second server was an obnoxiously loud home made server.  These served us well right up to the time we had several employees counting on our infrastructure every day.  Then when they went down it was more costly because more people were counting on it to do their jobs.  Not to mention our billing needed to happen weekly if not daily in order to keep the cash flowing.

Is there a middle ground between used stuff and way to expensive stuff?  I'm happy to report there is.  Like most other business problems there are strategic ways of dealing with each element of technology for a business.  The areas I see that most often need a attention while a business grows are the following for infrastructure.  1.File storage. 2. Email  3.firewall.  4. Phone system.

I'm going to break each one of these down in future blogs.  These are elements I see over and over.  it seems that in 10 years nothing has changed.  I mean the solutions have changed but the problems have not.  The great news is that there are better and better solutions and the cost of maintaining them is decreasing as well.

Thanks for reading  ~pz