Social Media – The Power and the Groups (LinkedIn & new on Facebook)

This week Facebook launched some new functionality. They've trumpeted the fact that you own your data on Facebook, and can now extract all your data to transfer to a rival service (at least in theory). You can also see more clearly what data is being passed to external applications. But of more interest to businesses is the new “Groups” functionality, that replaces a more simplistic “Old Groups” facility.

Many of you will, be familiar with Groups on LinkedIn. Anyone can set up a group there. Any user can join any group, though you do have to ask permission to join some of them. Groups are typically used for topics like Cloud Computing, alumni of a firm or college, clubs or locality. But also anything else where a group of people share a mutual interest.

LinkedIn Groups provide the opportunity for discussions between members who share that interest. The Group manager can post messages to all members without necessarily being connected. This is also effectively true of anyone who posts to a group discussion. It’s therefore a great way to get in touch with people you don’t know, in addition to keeping in touch with people you do know.

The new Facebook Groups is similar. The official Facebook view on Groups is that they are for families, “bestest friends” and other personal groups where you would want to share photos and information you wouldn’t want to share with friends generally – who might include parents, clients or boss!. There’s a lot more to it than that. For example someone can add their own friends to their own Group, so unless you get email notifications, you won’t easily know what Groups you have been joined into!

For business the temptation might be to have a Facebook group for your business and/or individual brands. This could be instead of or in addition to a presence with “Pages”. “Pages” is much more than the name implies. It lets you set up discussion groups under a number of headings. There are various choices.for businesses, entertainers and celebrities.

The name “Camwells” is set up as both a “local business” and a “product”. That was mainly to prove that a brandname can be set up in each category, by you or indeed by any one else. Likewise I have set up a Camwells “Group” to at least reserve the name!

Therefore from both a personal and business perspective it’s worth making sure your presence and admin settings suit you for each of these services, now and each time the functionality changes. It's also worth monitoring your business name and brand names, whether formally registered or not. This is recommended even if you don’t expect to make active use of the services.

But the Groups and Pages services of LinkedIn and Facebook can be highly beneficial when used well. It’s great these tools are “free”. The challenge is to use them effectively without it costing an arm and a leg in time or extra people.

How are you going to use Groups and Pages for your business?

Escaping Excel Hell – Using Graphical Add-Ins

If you’re familiar with my articles on "Escaping Excel Hell", then I’m often suggesting you replace Excel with a proper database-backed system.

This can be for planning/budgeting or a host of other business applications.

But one area where Excel remains extremely useful is for management reporting. Whilst there’s a key role for structured dashboards, Excel also has an important role to play.

One way or another information from a database system can be placed into Excel, where you can format it and present it in a variety of ways.

However there are two useful formats that are not available in standard Excel:

1. SFE Sparklines (see comparison with new standard features in Excel 2010)
2. Gauges for management dashboards (see one example in the screen shot above, which is just one of several formats)

Used selectively and carefully, these graphics can add great value to management reporting.

The gauges are available under a free 30-day trial from the Camwells website.

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KPIs – Why? What? Who? When? Where?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a term that means different things to different people. Here’s a quick roundup:

Why?

When properly used, KPIs can dramatically improve business performance.

Conversely the wrong KPIs can wreck performance, either by encouraging the wrong behaviour, or by taking people’s eyes off the ball.

What?

KPIs are often results like “Revenue”, but are most powerful when used as “Drivers”

Who?

Starting at the top of an organisation, these can filter down each level of the organisation.  What’s key to each person in achieving the business’s objectives?

When?

Anything from annually to hourly or less. Weekly can be good, to tie into weekly management meetings.

Where?

Are you taking proper advantage of KPIs in your business?

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SaaS Cloud Computing – Is It Worth The Hype?

As with every other generation of computing, SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud computing is portrayed as wonderful. Best thing since sliced bread. Or at least since silicon chips.

But does it live up to the hype?

It’s clear that there are substantial benefits with SaaS cloud computing. We looked at some of them before, including better remote access, potentially better backup and disaster recovery, and typically quicker to start implementation (though is very similar thereafter).

But is it all a bed of roses? With other types of computing  it’s only by addressing the pitfalls and risks that the benefits can be properly realised. Is SaaS cloud computing any different?

Of course not. Let’s look at what cloud computing really is.

WHAT IS SaaS? 

SaaS is actually “outsourced hosting of packaged software, provided as a service”:

• “Outsourced” means handing control of day to day activities to a third party, with all the benefits and drawbacks that brings, such as needing a clear exit path
• “Hosting” means data will be held somewhere else, potentially overseas. Many SaaS systems are hosted by a company other then the software provider.
• “Packaged software” means it has all the benefits and disadvantages of on-premise packaged software, and has similar characteristics to on-premise software of equivalent complexity
• "Provided as a service" means you do not have to pay for the IT infrastructure, you just pay for use of the system (in one of a number of ways)

There are other forms of cloud computing if you want to develop your own apps and/or host your own apps.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Firstly it is worth properly understanding  the pros and cons of SaaS cloud before subscribing for any service. That way you can avoid unsuitable providers, and put the right internal practices in place

Secondly don't believe the hype. Statements such as "Security is not an issue" and "Data centre location is not an issue" should be taken with a massive pinch of salt. Next week we'll look at statements like these and the reality behind them.

Thirdly think very carefully about adopting the DiY shortcuts many cloud providers suggest. Change management, project management, data conversion, and many other aspects of an implementation are similar if not identical between SaaS and on-premise solutions:

• Selection Process for SaaS - How Different from On-Premise?
• Implementation Process for SaaS - How Different from On-Premise?

Lastly, if in doubt ask. We're happy to help.

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News Update - Monday 4/10/10

Here's the pick of the last week's news stories that are likely to impact your business:

Microsoft Office Web Apps: Having announced in March that they were going to focus on developments for the web, they nonetheless have to tread carefully with Office. An update to the Office web apps seeks to build on the notion of Office as a combined software and web service platform.

European e-tailer Trustmark: With the Cloud Industry Forum about to launch a trustmark scheme for cloud providers, the EC is starting a trustmark scheme for etailers that is hoped will expand cross-border trade

Silent calls: Is your business making automatic telephone calls? There are now substantial fines

Twitter stats:

• 29% of tweets actually produce a reaction - that is, a reply or a retweet.
• 6% of all tweets are retweeted, virtually all within the first hour after the original tweet
• Nearly 80% of Twitter's users experience the service through Twitter.com. However, this is unlikely to be representative of the more active users, who tend to use services such as Tweetdeck.

“Curation”: Letting you capture tweets and other social media activity on a specific subject, such as your company, its products or services