Social Networking - Monetizing Facebook Business Apps

In previous articles we’ve looked at “apps” (applications) for Facebook:
1. Standard packaged apps
2. Customised apps used by the UK political parties to spread the word approaching the general election

Let’s look at a couple of custom-written apps for commercial businesses, the first of which is the simplest form – customised Facebook pages

Marmite. Do you love it or hate it? They have taken this question and produced a series of Facebook marketing campaigns. The one earlier in 2010 was a mock election between two “parties”l:

• The “Love Party"
• “Marmite - Hate it” which promises to ‘Stop the Spread’ of Marmite

There are also various other Facebook sites for Marmite (type Marmite into Facebook’s search)

During the "election" they had apps to help “spread the word”, just like the main UK political parties did. But these have been removed now the Marmite election is over.

Another household food brand has taken apps a stage further. Pringles has 3.4million “fans”, and has set up two apps:

1. “Pringoooals”, playing on the World Cup theme
2. “Oversharers” where a user can use a Pringles-sponsored button to tell friends when they blab too much in their status updates.

Both the Marmite and Pringles examples are in the B2C space, principally because Facebook provides the vast numbers of people that are a B2C marketer’s dream.

Monetizing Facebook apps more directly has been described as “the holy grail”. We’ll look at this in the next apps article.

If you know of any other good apps examples, B2B or B2C, do add a comment.

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Escaping Excel Hell - Add-Ins for Excel

In an earlier article I mentioned that there are three principle ways to escape Excel hell.

The first is to make better use of the version you have, or upgrade to Excel 2010.


The second is to replace it with a database or specialist software such as budgeting/reporting.

The third is to use add-ins or integration. Looking at add-ins, there are several that are worth evaluating:

1. For dashboards: Excel gauges from Pendragon Systems, as in the graphic above. Click here for this example and a free trial.
2. For graphics: Sparklines for Excel (SfE)
3. For business intelligence – analysis and reporting: PowerOLAP 9 using Excel as a front end, from BIOLAP in the UK
4. For statutory accounts production: VT Final Accounts
   

If anyone has hands-on experience of any of these tools, good or painful, please comment. Likewise if there are any other favourites or best-to-avoids! Suppliers are equally welcome to comment.

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Performance Management - KPIs and the Brewery Analogy

Yes, that got your attention! But why the association between KPIs and breweries?

KPIs are of two types:

(1) KPDs – Key Performance Drivers
(2) KRMs – Key Results Metrics.

It’s the KPDs that are the real Key Performance “Indicators”, providing information about how well the underlying business processes are running.

Let’s think for the moment of a business as a money-making machine. There are typically a number of key stages with any business, in this example B2B (business to business):

1. Marketing function generates interest
2. Sales closes deals
3. Operations supplies the product or service
   
4. Finance collects the customer payment. and pays suppliers and staff
   

How do you monitor how well each of these (and any other) stages are working?

We are talking about business processes. So let’s look at how to monitor a manufacturing process. Yes, let’s look at a brewery, and imagine you are in the control room. What would you want to see on the control panels?

Simplifying the brewing process, we have at least six key stages:

• Receipt of raw materials
• Preparation for fermentation (Mash Tun, Copper and Hopback)
  
• Fermentation
• Filtration
• Bottling & Casing
• Despatch & sale

For fermentation you’ll want to know a number of key metrics, perhaps:

• Temperature & pressure (probably on gauges)
• Quantity of raw materials added per batch or hour
• Quantity of finished product compared to “standard” for the amount of raw materials (yield)
• Alcoholic strength produced
• Etc etc

These are all non-financial metrics, and are a mix of KPDs (driving the process) and KRMs (the result of the process).

Applying a similar approach to a sales team, for example, you can benefit from setting KPDs & KRMs for managing the sales funnel. Weekly metrics might include “value of quotes per week by salesman” plus “conversion rate from quote to sale.within x weeks”, where x is appropriate for the length of the sales cycle.

There’s the old phrase “What gets measured gets done”. You therefore need to be careful about which metrics you use, to ensure that in combination they drive behaviour that is congruent with the business’s goals. This is especially relevant where there are fractions e.g. converted quotes divided by total quotes raised. This is because it is easier to improve the metric by reducing the number of quotes in this example, by excluding those that are not virtually certain of success, than by actually improving the closing process. If the business prefers that quotes are also raised in situations where the order is not virtually certain, there needs to be another metric that encourages staff to raise them.

If you’d like further information, I wrote a whole series of articles on Performance Management . Or just give me a call.

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Cloud Computing - Hot Air or Business Reality?

Cloud computing is BIG BENEFITS, BIG RISKS. Is use of the cloud living on a wing and a prayer? Or is the cloud business-ready?

See recent article Hot Air or Business Reality?

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Weekly review – iPhone 4 launch / iPad availability / PowerPoint’s role

Apple iPhone 4

Normally I wouldn't talk about mobile phones in this blog. But with little exciting in the news this last week, the sheer power of modern mobiles and their growing importance for internet access (and my own N95 8GB being eligible for an upgrade!), I’m taking a little more interest than normal in the mobile market.

Hot on the heels of the Apple iPad is the iPhone 4. It is the "iPhone 4" not the "iPhone 4G", communicating at most using 3G. (4G, whether it is LTE being trialed by O2, or full IMTA, won't be available commercially in the UK for some time). The iPhone 4 is available from Thursday June 24th from all five UK mobile networks (O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three & Vodafone, plus resellers such as Carphone Warehouse & Phones-4-U). Only O2 appear to have announced their tariffs, which unlike the iPad includes an iPhone 4 in the monthly contracts.

The original iPhone took the world by storm three years ago. The iPhone 4 is a distinct improvement on the previous models, such as by providing multi-tasking and a 5MP camera. But many are saying that other manufacturers’ phones, many using the “Android” operating system may be a better bet, especially the HTC Desire, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the Blackberrys.

The iPhone 4 offers significant functionality, including better resolution display, and HD-quality videoing.

To a certain extent the choice between the iPhone and other smartphones is what “apps” (applications) are available for the “platforms”. It's also the age-old battle between the Mac OS available only for "lovable" Apple products (in this case the iPhone) and an operating system available usually more cheaply on a variety of manufacturers’ devices (in this case “Android”).

It may be a matter of choosing between heart and head.


Apple iPad Update

The iPad is still very difficult to get hold of in the UK. There were some of the iPad models without the 3G micro-SIM slot available directly from Apple shops over this last weekend. Currys and PCWorld seemed to be sold out around the south east at least, but both now offer a stock availability checker (click on the links above, then your region, then model at bottom of page then "Click here to check the availability in your area"). For the 3G models, which allow connection to the 3G mobile data network for an extra subscription, it should hopefully only be a matter of days before new stock is available.

But which model? Check for yourself, but unless you are going to be loading a lot of videos onto the iPad, the entry-level 16GB should be sufficient. Instead of bigger storage, why not save your money and buy a decent case and other accessories instead? The choice is yours.

For 3G services, there's a big disparity in tariffs among the operators, none of which include an iPad, which has to be bought separately as above. So which operator?

Here are the Apps available for iPad and previous articles on the iPad:

• MobileMe (item 3)
• iPad - Fashion Fad or Business Workhorse

PowerPoint – Presentation or Persuasion?

You'll find this an interesting take on the role of PowerPoint from Graham, Jones, the “Internet Phychologist”.

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Social Networking - Tips & Facebook Privacy

So I’m told, the Forces teach alpine skiing to novices by taking them to the top of a black run and letting them compete to make their own way to the bottom. True or not, they wouldn’t let them try without some form of briefing on how to ski and on safety.

The same is true for social networking. The best way is to just have a go, but you need to know some basics to “keep safe”. Here's just a few tips to get you started ...

Twitter

For Twitter it’s worth knowing that “Usernames” are case sensitive. So set yourself up as camWElls and that’s what will appear on each of your tweets for ever. Maybe you want to set up SafeSaaS, so do it like that (and I just have!). But having registered SafeSaaS, no-one else can register variants such as safesaas or SAFESAAS.

It’s also worth knowing you can delete tweets, if there’s a mistake,. But if they feed automatically into another system such as LinkedIn, it’s best to assume that it won’t be deleted there.

Facebook

For Facebook, you can have as many "walls" as you like, all called "camwells" - here is a "product/service" & this is a "local business". But so can anyone else add a wall with your business name (go on try another camwells!) . So worth checking periodically for pass-offs, "fakes" and any other problems.

Blogging and Forums

In blogging and forums, some let you edit/delete a post once you’ve made it, some let you edit/delete comments, but few do both. So worth knowing which is which, and being extra careful with those that don’t allow edits. [Note to self, I can edit this post but can’t edit any comments I add later]

There’s 1001 other tips for each of these systems you’ll find by doing a few searches.

Keeping Mum

Some years ago I heard a talk on ethics. The speaker asked how we would feel if an "indiscretion" were to appear on the front page of the Times. You’ve no doubt seen stories in the papers about “inappropriate” private emails going global electronically, and which have really bitten the originator (and others) in the backside.

It’s worth assuming that any electronic communication could be passed on and seen by anyone - I've certainly seen this happen accidentally - such as forwarded emails including an earlier private email conversation with someone else.

Social networking takes this to a new level. Do a Google search on your child, your employee or indeed yourself and see what comes up. Photos legless at the office party? Slagging off their boss? Children giving away details you’d rather they kept secret?

MORE ON FACEBOOK PRIVACY

A week ago we looked at Facebook privacy, which is an important “safety” issue if you, your business and/or your family are going to use it. After all “With the popularity of Facebook, it is becoming hard to keep your personal life personal”. At that time, I looked at the official announcements by Facebook.

I also promised to look closer at what the rest of the world is saying, around three key elements:

1. What can people see and do on your "wall"?
2. What can computers & "bots" see?
3. What information is Facebook is actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people?

Unfortunately, Facebook can change the rules whenever it wants, as it has done recently. Let’s look at the aspects In reverse order:

What information is Facebook actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people?

In the early days, Facebook reckoned it “owned” the data, photos etc loaded onto its website. This is not the case with the current Ts&Cs, which state:

• “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.”
• “…subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License")”……
• “When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture”
• Re ShareLinks: “You give us permission to use and allow others to use such links and content on Facebook”

You have to appreciate that Facebook is a free service, paid for principally by advertisers. Facebook can and does use and “sell”information, subject to your privacy settings, as stated above. This is set out in some detail in their privacy policy section 5 “How We Use Your Information”

What can computers & "bots" see?

According to the Irish Times “It’s not so much that this data is being sold to companies as being handed out willy-nilly to the wider internet. Anyone can interrogate and add to Facebook’s databases now with its “Graph API” feature. The escalation in the amount of data Facebook is making public largely comes from its attempts to feed this open interface more useful information.”

According to the Independent Mail “Websites and applications can get data about you through your friends, your profile will show up in Google searches and your info pre-populates into certain websites.”

What can people see and do on your "wall"?

As Facebook evolved from being a small group of friends at Harvard to some 400 million users, the concept of "friends" was developed. The privacy settings allow 4 options

1. Friends – these are people you have individually allowed to access and/or post information
2. Friends of friends – you can let certain information be seen not only by your friends but by their friends also
3. Everyone – the whole world
4. Customise - where you can allow access by (and/or hide from) specific people if you require

How can this all be controlled?

Under the “Account” menu in the top right hand corner of the Facebook screens, once you have logged in there are two sections :

1. Application settings
2. Privacy settings

Unfortunately the default in many cases is “Everyone”. Before you use Facebook, either for the first time or any further, it’s worth reviewing the advice in this article “Keep Out: Getting your privacy back on Facebook“ posted yes

PostScript 17th June: An open letter to the CEO of Facebook has been sent, highlighting remaining privacy issues.

Happy socializing! But do be careful!!

We'll look at privacy for businesses and organisations, which is important but somewhat different, in a separate article.

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Escaping Excel Hell – Forecasting and Budgeting

Budgeting and forecasting in the mid-market is an oddity. Corporate systems exist, such as Cognos Planning (formerly Adaytum), but these are often too expensive for mid-sized organisations.

At the lower end there is the likes of Sage Forecasting. But in the mid-market?

Microsoft bought ProClarity, which was transformed into PerformancePoint. Moments later it was morphed into SharePoint, but the budgeting was dropped: As announced by a firm who had built their business on it: “The major shakeup of PerformancePoint announced on 23rd January 2009, sees the Monitoring and Analytics arm of the product being re-branded ‘PerformancePoint Services’, while the Planning element is being discontinued. PerformancePoint Services will become a feature of the much larger Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. This has taken the Microsoft BI market completely by surprise and has affected both suppliers and customers alike.” Thanks Microsoft!

That brings us back to that good old workhorse, Excel (also from Microsoft). But we’ve looked previously at the significant drawbacks of using Excel for budgeting, especially when multi-user collaboration is needed.

Surely the cloud can bring us something powerful yet affordable? Yes, but little as yet. Leading the marketing battle is Adaptive Planning . To follow....
(see the subsequent article)

Performance Management - Dashboards

CIMA, the management accountants, have produced a useful paper that sets out the role of management dashboards within the overall topic of performance management – “Improving decision making in organisations - Unlocking business intelligence” . This was published in September 2008, so some of the details are a little out of date - for example Microsoft PerformancePoint has now been incorporated into SharePoint, but dropping the budgeting functionality.

CIMA also run a series of public Masterclasses that cover dashboards. Discounts are available for CIMA & ICAEW members and some other people - see details for each course, pages 10-13.

A lot of people like speedometer “gauges”, as in the graphic above. Here is an example that can be incorporated into Excel.

Cloud Computing – Hot Air or Business Reality?

Thanks to Microsoft for reminding me of a paper by Ted Schadler of Forrester Research. He advised CFOs to take a close look at cloud computing for email, collaboration and enterprise applications.

The points are equally valid today, though Ted focused principally on benefits. So let’s look at both the pros and cons

Key Benefits

Ted mentioned three key benefits:

1. Speed: Accelerate a project roll-out

Cloud services (SaaS, PaaS & IaaS) are hosted remotely. Typically quicker to get through budget approval, and no need to wait for delivery of hardware etc. But for SaaS, which involves packaged software, don’t be fooled by statements that all you need to do is pay monthly fee and forget about help with set-up, project management, change management, training etc. These need to match those of an equivalent on-premise solution, whether you start with a pilot or a full-scale implementation. A requirements specification is also recommended, at least to establish which SaaS system(s) should be trialed.

2. Focus: Outsource non-core competencies to a service provider

Let the “specialists worry about the nuts and bolts so that you don’t have to” is a compelling argument, especially for small and medium-sized businesses that often struggle to do the basics in back-up, disaster recovery and general systems administration. It can help release IT staff for better things in larger organisations.

3. Funding: Pay as you go rather than pay up front.

This is also compelling for any application, but especially when the services offered would be completely unaffordable to run in-house. However less money up-front to the supplier reduces what they can spend on quality pre-sales work, and raises the risk of suppliers going out of business (compared to traditional package software houses) unless they are well funded.

Further benefits for Software as a Service (SaaS cloud)

Continuing this article focusing on SaaS cloud, various other useful papers have been published. These take a more balanced view of pros and cons. These include “The business case for Software as a Service” by Intellect (representing UK IT vendors) and “Cloud Computing – a guide for business managers” by the IT faculty of the ICAEW (representing users). From these documents and my own experience I’d like to add five more principal benefits to those highlighted by Forrester:

1. Functionality can be shared from any location with an internet connection, from any device with a compatible internet browser. This allows remote access from multiple sites, by mobile workers, and collaboration with third parties (including customers and suppliers)
2. Regular upgrades provide new functionality more quickly, without the hassle of installing them. However there are issues with upgrades in multi-tenant systems (see below).
3. Easy to increase usage when needed (but not so easy to reduce it)
4. Easier to pilot an application, and withdraw quickly if necessary at lower cost and embarrassment!
5. Better backup and disaster recovery than a typical on-premise installation, certainly for smaller  businesses

Cons, Pitfalls & Risks

Turning to the “cons”, this is my take from 10 years using SaaS systems for ecommerce, email, ebanking and other purposes. As Intellect says “While the SaaS model offers significant advantages over on-premise, it does carry potential risks that must also be considered”:

1. Top of my list is reliance on an internet connection. As Andy Scott says “Loss of Internet = loss of information systems. PERIOD.” At each place of use, it is a must to have at least two totally independent reasonably high-speed internet connections, either broadband + 4G, 2 different 4G services, or some other combination.
2. Top of most people’s concerns is security. "Security" covers a multitude of sins, from internet reliance (as above), user access, encryption, vendor staff, leavers/transferees, to back-up and disaster recovery. This all needs to be within compliance with the relevant Data Protection legislation (e.g. for FCA). There may in fact be an improvement using SaaS by comparison to your existing on-premise solution, but needs a careful look.
   
3. Security is closely related to data ownership. What’s in the vendor’s contract? Do you have (or can you quickly get) your own data back-ups, and the ability to move to another service if and when you need to?
4. As mentioned above, upgrades are both an advantage and potentially a critical issue, depending on the SaaS vendor and how it operates. Issues exist around timing, testing, user procedures, training, etc
5. SaaS solutions can usually be configured, can often be integrated with other systems, but can rarely be customised as easily as on-premise solutions. What you see is what you get!
6. Contingency planning is vital. Any lack of a credible contingency plan for a business critical application needs careful consideration, depending on the circumstances.

Ever "positive but cautious"

The quality (and indeed acceptability) of a specific supplier and its offering for a specific application is fundamental to the success of your cloud adventure. There’s no escaping proper due diligence! Assuming the cloud is an acceptable approach for the specific application, given the available offerings, it’s a question of which cloud.

Weekly review - Broadband risks / Smartphone vulnerability / iPad

There’s two important pieces of news this week, plus an update on the Apple iPad:

(1) BT workers are to be balloted on strike action.

If you are reliant on the internet for cloud computing applications, accessing other websites or just for email, would the loss of your internet connection be a body blow?

Here in Maidenhead a couple of years ago, someone vandalized a section of BT cabling serving several hundred homes and businesses. For several days no-one in the area could make land-line phone calls, automatically authorize card payments, or access the internet through BT. A strike may have the same effects.

Fortunately I have a 3G dongle which I use when away from base, and BT diverted incoming calls to my mobile, so the landline loss was little more than a nuisance. But what about all the internet-enabled devices in your business or home?

Larger organisations will have their own redundancy solutions (though I’ve seen several go without internet access for hours if not days). For smaller installations it is worth considering broadband routers that have a 3G service in-built. Here’s an example from Billion where they say “The auto fail-over feature ensures maximum connectivity and minimum interruption by quickly and smoothly connecting to a 3G network in the event that your ADSL line fails.” It’s available from places like Maplins. Not cheap, but worth it?

(2) Viruses for Smartphones?

PCW recently reported that a few of the new Samsung Wave smartphones had been shipped with a computer trojan virus pre-loaded onto the microSD card. Connecting the phone to a PC using auto-run would allow the trojan to attempt to infect the PC. Copying the file would potentially pass it on to other PCs.

It’s a stark reminder that it’s not only PCs that are vulnerable, even if the devices only act as a carrier, as with the Wave.

It’s also worth remembering that the Apple Mac is virtually immune from viruses and other threats (though can never protect from phishing and other threats that don’t take place on the device itself). Apple says "The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box". Norton onetheless sell an anti-virus solution for the Mac, principally to avoid passing on infected files to PC users like with the Wave (the term "dual protection" only refers to getting a copy of the Windows version in case you are running both Windows and Apple OS X on the same machine ). Other companies also provide Mac anti-virus, and here's a useful round-up of Mac security risks and protection.

With strong security solutions readily available, could someone tell me why the world puts up with Windows vulnerability?

(3) A little more on the iPad

By the way, when the iPad was first announced, the Apple website said that the "mobileme" service would allow you to remotely wipe everything from your iPad instantly in the event of theft or loss (provided presumably it’s switched on and accessing the internet). This is similar to the "mobileme" service for iPhone.

Social networking - Facebook privacy changes

A week ago, Facebook changed their privacy settings, after much criticism of their previous approach. What's the view a week on?

Firstly here's the BBC's take on the new screens. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains the rationale. Further official details are here.

Secondly Facebook yesterday released a new privacy page, in the form of a Facebook wall. This is being continuously updated with new advice and privacy material. They also released a second, short explanatory video, called "Controlling Sharing on Facebook: Part II".

If you still think there is work for Facebook to do on privacy, then you can provide feedback directly.

3 types of privacy

There are in fact three types of privacy relevant to Facebook:

1. What people can see and do on your "wall"
2. What computers & "bots" can see
3. What information Facebook is actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people
   

... to be continued ...

Excel Hell - ways to escape

Over the last few weeks we've looked at various ways to escape Excel Hell.

I hope you find this summary useful:





(1) Replacing Excel

Moving from Excel to a database solution for order processing

Using other tools for budgeting and forecasting


(2) Enhancing Excel

With add-ins or integration

Dashboard gauges


(3) Upgrading to Excel 2010

PowerPivot

Business Intelligence – PowerPivot for Excel 2010

It’s very difficult to be enthusiastic about a Microsoft product that promises to “help improve IT efficiency” when I’ve lost so much time with Windows playing up. Apologies for the rant, but when I loaded a document about PowerPivot from the Microsoft website, the processor went to 100% on some set of background tasks Windows wouldn’t let me see or manage.

This stopped me from making any progress on writing this article, which was going to be a lot longer. It will now have to be only a short introduction! Then came an error message presented from Adobe Reader. No wonder Apple doesn’t want Adobe software on their iPad!!

Anyway ... back to PowerPivot

Last week we looked at “Business Intelligence – what the hell does it mean?” David Carter pointed out that a common BI tool is the pivot table functionality within Excel. This started in Excel in primitive form right back in 1993.

Pivot tables (which are also available in other spreadsheets and BI software) can automatically sort, count, and total the data stored in one table or spreadsheet and create a second table (called a "pivot table") displaying the summarized data.

PowerPivot (formerly known as Project Gemini) takes this a stage further as an add-in for Excel 2010. As Robert Cain at “ArcaneCode” says in his article “Introducing Microsoft PowerPivot”
“PowerPivot sits inside Microsoft Excel [2010 only]. It not only can create basic pivot tables but has all the full featured functionality of Excel at its disposal. It can format pivot tables in a wide array of styles, create pivot charts and graphs, and combine these together into useful dashboards. Additionally PowerPivot has a rich set of mathematical functionally, combining the existing functions already in Excel with an additional set of functions called Data Analysis eXpressions or DAX”

He’s summarised this article with further diagrams in a concise presentation. This also describes the relationship with SharePoint 2010 to distribute PowerPivot reports across an organisation.

Robert’s article and presentation date back to last November. From the official Microsoft site, it’s not worth seeing the videos (unless you’ve got time to waste, and haven’t eaten recently!). But it is worth reading the latest pdf I mentioned: (It seems to load better from Internet Explorer than Firefox)

PowerPivot vs SQL Server Analysis Services (SSaS)

So if PowerPivot is effectively bringing Analysis Services functionality from Microsoft SQL Server into Excel on the desktop, is there any future role for Analysis Services?

Microsoft’s view is that “power users” in the end–user community will be able to use PowerPivot for many reporting requirements, but SSAS will remain an IT-department tool for more complex requirements.

PowerPivot vs PerformancePoint

Then wasn't PerformancePoint supposed to be "Microsoft Business Intelligence"? Well yes PerformancePoint is still here (despite losing its budgeting/forecasting capability). If you've got a stiff drink to hand, then this white paper explains how to use PowerPivot within Sharepoint 2010.

PowerPivot vs OLAP

I’ve also heard it said that “pre-calculated cubes become obsolete overnight”. Perhaps suppliers of traditional multi-dimensional OLAP software would like to comment

Availability of Excel 2010

Excel 2010 will be available in all three versions of Office 2010 for home, SME and Pro use. It will run on Windows XP (SP3 only), Vista, Windows 7 and equivalent server systems (see full technical requirements). As of 12th May, Office 2010 has been a “release candidate” trial version of the Pro version. Beta versions of the home and SME versions are also available.

Full release of all three versions is expected towards the end of June 2010, though no precise date has been published, pending feedback from the trial and beta users. A comparison of the contents of the three versions is here, where you can also place advance orders. Microsoft obviously benefit from this, but could anyone explain why it would be worth doing? Cheaper?

Upgrade from earlier versions of Excel

Those who buy Office 2007 after 5 March 2010 will get a free upgrade to Office 2010 – but there are stringent conditions that must be checked first. Earlier purchases will not be entitled to any upgrade discount. Once Office 2010 is fully available, worth looking whether 2007 can be bought more cheaply than 2010 (from an official source), and then upgrade for free. But check carefully how this would be done before purchase, especially if you have Office 2003 or 2007 already installed!

Cloud Industry Code of Practice

Is it only in London where you wait hours for a bus, and then two or three (or maybe even four) come along at once?

The Cloud industry has made a number of initiatives to improve the overall approach to the market, for the good of both vendors and users.

The latest initiative is the 2009-formed “Cloud Industry Forum” which has published an “Industry Code of Practice” under a public consultation recently. Anyone who would like to download a copy and perhaps submit feedback should click here as soon as possible.

The Intellect Technology Association (“Intellect”), which represents the IT, telecoms and electronics vendors, has also published a “Business case for Software as a Service“. Although the title suggests a preference for SaaS, the document is actually a very balanced, concise yet useful factual summary of the two approaches.

There is a summary of security issues on page 13. Some of the key points made are:

“While the SaaS model offers significant advantages over on-premise, it does carry potential risks that must also be considered.”

“For SaaS providers [security] is mission critical, and is generally taken very seriously to the point where data security is as important, if not more so, than the SaaS product itself.”

“…it is worth contrasting [SaaS] with your in-house security and compliance before becoming unnecessarily worried about storing your data outside your organization”

Whilst my experience of using SaaS systems first hand suggests there are aspects that need to be added to both documents, both are worth reading if you are a vendor or user of SaaS services.

Further thoughts on the Cloud Industry

Keeping to the transport theme, it’s interesting to think that when the Titanic went down, shipping didn’t stop. However when the Hindenburg burst into flames, it was the end of giant passenger-carrying airships for many years. The difference? In the case of ships, there were no credible alternatives. For airships, there were credible alternatives, and any advantages were outweighed by the risks.

Whatever the cause of the Hindenberg disaster (the hydrogen may have only fuelled a fire that had started elsewhere), the effect was the same – the death of the passenger airship industry.

The cloud industry is relatively new, and on-premise remains a credible alternative. Whilst a major problem in a cloud system might not be a disaster in the sense of the Hindenberg, would the cloud industry be immune from a Hindenberg-equivalent disaster that would take the cloud industry to its knees?

Or for the sake of both users and vendors, should the industry be looking very carefully for any “Hindenberg” risks, be they equivalent to hydrogen, or less obvious? The “Industry Code of Practice” is a good step towards making sure the industry avoids a disaster, and can recover should one occur. Who would want a lower quality cloud vendor to sink the whole industry?

Weekly Review - iPad / Loss of confidential data

Apple iPad

One of the most interesting pieces of news from this last week is the UK launch of the Apple iPad. See details in my previous article.

PCWorld and Currys are both showing stock at many of their stores. Honest and truthful? If you’ve been looking for an iPad, what’s your experience of availability? Still stock at Apple stores?

Loss of confidential data

Last week saw another case of data being disclosed or lost by a Government department – an HMRC printing error resulted in personal details, including bank and salary details, being printed on tax credit award notices by mistake.

There has also been debate about the security of SaaS cloud applications, and how they inherently compare to typical on-premise installations. Your view?

Furthermore, why do we all still use unencrypted email, when encrypted services are available?

(P.S. Apologies for this short Bank Holiday posting)

iPad UK Launch Day 28 May – Availability Update / Social Networking

Let me tell you a story ….

In addition to Apple’s own stores, rumour had it this week that DSGI's PCWorld and Currys stores were going to be selling iPads today, Friday. My localish stores both opened at 9am. Which to go to?

8am this morning. Still nothing on either website. So I tried ringing the customer service lines. Both were closed until 9am. Was it going to be a wasted journey?

I’d been meaning to visit about something else, so at 8.30 jumped in the car. But still which to go to?

I know one of the staff at Currys. Very knowledgeable, pleasure to do business with. Perhaps he could do me a good deal on accessories, if not the iPad itself.

Bad traffic. Arrive Currys 0855. No queue, doors already open. No other customers. “Sorry sir, but PCWorld has them round the corner!”

Arrive PCWorld 0858. Queue had already been let in. Get to iPad desk 0902. Had every model, except had sold out of the model I wanted! Also none of the main accessory I wanted. Try another store? More stock expected soon at this one. So looks like I've got to wait.

Get back to the office 0930. Both websites now have a list of stores that stock the product. Not convinced I want to advertise these companies, both of which are part of the DSGI group. But if you want to get your hands on an iPad, I suggest you quickly check the iPad section of the two websites. Unfortunately it doesn't look as if the iPad is covered by the Reserve and Collect service on either website. So it's first come, first served:

• Currys

• PCWorld

Apple's own UK stores and on-line ordering is here.

If you can get hold of an iPad, or already have one from the USA, do tell me how you get on with it!

Here is an earlier article about using the iPad in business:
"Apple iPad – fashion fad or business workhorse?"


Part 2: Social Networking for Business

As Friday is supposed to be “Social Networking for Business” day, I thought I’d look to see if I had missed anything announced by DSGI on Twitter, Facebook or the like.

Going to DSGI’s corporate site, no obvious mention of any social networking. Looking in the investor section, the first page didn’t look as if it had been updated for nearly a year. They certainly aren’t using any social networking tools to keep in touch with investors.

Turning to the two trading brands:

• Currys site: Zilch

• PCWorld site: Zippo, nowt, diddly squat!

Checking Twitter and Facenook there’s nothing except perhaps a couple of unused placeholders, and the unrelated PCWorld magazine

What about new products? Special offers? News announcements whilst the web site is being updated?

It’s now 3 hours since I posted the initial sorry story above. No contact yet from any part of DSGI . Other businesses pick up on mentions straight away - see the green Sage logo in the "followers" of Camwells on Twitter.

Does DSGI know something about social networking that I don’t, which keeps them away from it? (I've highlighted some of the risks in previous articles). Or is their apparent lack of usage one of the reasons why their share price has gone south in the last couple of months?


Part 3: And now for another little story before the bank holiday – David vs Goliath?

Any similarity to persons or businesses alive or dead is entirely coincidental! (Please advise anything that needs adjustment!)

Once upon a time, around 1970/71, Apple Computer, Inc. was founded in California. One of the founders was a certain Steve Jobs.

In a bloody coup in 1985, Jobs left Apple and became involved in a software company called NeXT.

Also in 1985 Microsoft re-launched their Multiplan spreadsheet onto Apple’s Macintosh (Mac) computer as “Excel”. It was only moved to Microsoft Windows in 1987. Come 2010, Excel (as part of the Office suite) is still available for the Mac.

The launch of Windows alongside IBM put enormous pressure on all the other companies in the PC market. Apple fared better than most, but a decline in market share and a series of blunders with other products brought Apple to its knees

Problems with producing a new operating system in-house led to Apple purchasing NeXT with their software that now underlies Apple OS X. So Steve Jobs came back to Apple.

Come 1997, Apple had to go around the industry with a begging bowl. Microsoft made a $150 million investment in non-voting Apple stock. With Apple the only credible competitor to Microsoft in the desktop market, cynics might say this was to avoid monopolies problems.

As the years rolled by, Apple produced a string of beautifully designed and highly regarded products – the iMac, iPod, iPhone to name but three.

In 2007 the company became Apple Inc, reflecting their multi-media presence with other services, notably iTunes.

Now in May 2010 Apple has just overtaken Microsoft in terms of market capitalisation, which earlier this week were $222bn and $219bn respectively. This makes Apple the most valuable technology firm in the world. Yet without Microsoft’s capital injection, Apple would likely not have survived!

So why has Apple overtaken Microsoft? Very different business models for a start. There are also key differences strategically. Microsoft has always tried to appeal to the IT guys at corporates, by making their tools generate and protect jobs. (sorry, I’ve let the cynic out again!). The rest of the world follows. Apple has focused on users, making their products not only functional but lovable. When was the last time you heard of someone in love with Windows?

As to the future, bets please?

Excel Reporting – Example Of Dashboard Gauges

Recently come across these gauges which allow speedometer-style chartlettes to be put into Excel sheets.

Much, much easier than the manual method suggested here


Pendragon Systems Limited are offering a free trial, so worth taking advantage.

There’s also a simple example based on temperature in the office, as shown in the graphic above. You can put in temperatures and adjust the colour boundaries. Useful when temperatures are rising!

The temperature example and free trial of the software are available here.

STOP PRESS: Facebook changes privacy settings

Big change in privacy settings. If you or your kids use Facebook for business or hobby then worth seeing this BBC presentation of the new screens at
http://bit.ly/cH9MJy

Business Intelligence – what the hell does it mean?

Business Intelligence, often known by the two letters B.I, is a hopelessly over-used term. Vendors of all types of reporting software tend to label their products BI.

The origins of the term go back to 1958, when it was defined as "the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal." But that was years ago!

The term was resurrected in 1989 to mean "concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems”, but did not become popular until the late 1990s. With so many terms from this era already consigned to the history books, BI’s longevity follows its appeal to the emotions.

Reporting and forecasting systems became “intelligent” with the advent of analytical systems that could make sense of the multi-dimensional world of products, territories, customers, salespeople, groupings and time periods. These are often referred to as OLAP systems (OnLine Analytical Processing, as distinct from OnLine Transactional Processing).

Whilst there are various types of OLAP systems (MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP, WOLAP, DOLAP etc), the use of multi-dimensional “cubes” of information is the essence of making sense out of the jumble of data typically found in transactional systems.

Future articles will explore BI in all its glory!

SaaS computing - new business/financial systems

In yesterday’s news update, I mentioned that there have been announcements this last week by three major players about their new cloud and on-premise offerings:

(1) SAP Business ByDesign (BYD)
(2) IRIS OpenApps
(3) Sage ERP 1000 v3.0 (1000 and Line 500)

Let's focus in this article on SAP Business ByDesign.

SAP Business ByDesign (BYD)

SAP Business ByDesign (BYD) was originally launched as a SaaS cloud service in 2007. It is understood that take-up was not as fast as SAP had hoped. BYD has just been upgraded and re-launched. As a SaaS service, the application and data is hosted by SAP. Commercially, payment is typically made periodically.

BYD is aimed at organisations of around 100-500 employees, and priced for 10 system users upwards (formerly minimum 25 users). BYD provides a range of functionality across financial management, CRM and business operations. (Stop press: Within minutes of me posting this article, the diagram in the original linked page has now been removed by SAP. Spooky!).

A lot is being written elsewhere about BYD as a product, and the pros and cons of SaaS. What users may find useful is to put BYD into context of SAP and its other offerings.

Until relatively recently, SAP focused exclusively on “tier 1” corporates for their financial and ERP (manufacturing) software. Their main product was R/3, which is now part of the “Business Suite” for corporates. But SAP had an issue. Groups of companies found it significantly more expensive to deploy a separate SAP system in their subs, rather than to use non-SAP products. One centralised group system was often not ideal. In addition, SAP had the opportunity to widen their business into the sub-corporate market.

However it is only in the last few years that SAP has operated in the mid-market. This was by acquiring a mid-market ERP system now called Business One, and at the upper end providing a cut-down version of R/3 now known as All-in-One. The new BYD sits alongside and between these two offerings, being a separate product using technology to suit the SaaS model.

SAP (and Oracle) talks about the SME sector and “small” companies. However they do not compete with the likes of Sage Line 50. It’s best to think of their SME offerings as being for the lower and upper mid-market, with indicative user numbers as:

• 500+ users: SAP Business All-in-One
• 10 to 500 users: SAP Business ByDesign
• 10-100 users: SAP Business One

With SAP coming from the “confusion wins the sale” school of marketing, SAP Business BOGOF (Buy-One-Get-One-Free) is due for launch in July. No seriously, given how different “Business All-in-One” is to “Business One”, it helps not to be confused!

Further detail on the SAP products and their history is below, if you are interested (or want a snooze!)

Outline SAP History

In broad terms the relevant history of SAP is as follows (please comment if anything should be added or amended!) :

• Founded 1972 as an IBM spin-out, with their R/1 software developed for ICI as a manufacturing-focused “Enterprise Resource Planning” (ERP) system
• Originally called "Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung" ("System Analysis and Program Development") and re-named "Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing"
• R/2 was launched 1979
• R/3 was launched 1992 as a 3-tier “thin” client-server system (database, application server and client, where processing and business logic is carried out by the centralised application server).
• R/3 has morphed into the “ECC” component of the “ERP” system within today’s corporate “Business Suite”

• Entered internet world in 1999 with MySAP.com which provided ecommerce functionality for R/3
• MySAP became the name for a simplified version of R/3.
• MySAP has since morphed into SAP “Business All-in-One” (all in one database)

• SAP Business One was SAP’s first real foray into the mid-market.
  
• Based on the acquisition of TopManage Financial Systems in 2002
• This is a 2-tier "thick" client-server system (where all processing and business logic are carried out on the client PC instead of the application server)

• SAP Business ByDesign (BYD) was first launched in late 2007, one tenant per physical server
  
• Re-launched May 2010 as multi-tenant system (multiple tenants per physical server, but some form of separation of those tenants, awaiting clarification), available August
  

News Review - Twitter / Mid-range ERP systems

What A Twit! (Twitterer)

Today Twitter hit the headlines when the British Airways talks were scuppered over the weekend. Derek Simpson, the union negotiator, had posted tweets directly from the talks as they were happening. This infuriated BA.

What luck that I had chosen BA for examples of how they themselves are using social networking tools for business! Shortcuts to the recent articles are here and here.

Derek’s usage highlights some important aspects of Twitter:

1. Tweets allow people to see in real-time what’s happening. This can optionally include links to websites, photos or videos.
2. However, unless the reader happens to be reading your tweets at that precise time, the chances are that readers will miss what you are saying. (This is because subsequent tweets from other people being followed by that reader soon knock older tweets out of sight.)
3. In any case, Twitter does leave a full history of tweets made by each user. As I write, Derek’s tweets history is there, plain to see. Judge for yourself.

For marketing purposes, Twitter may not provide the immediate flood of interest from tweets that you might hope. But it does leave a trail of comments that readers can find useful. For example, the Camwells tweets effectively provide a history of articles in this blog, as well as providing links to external sites that readers may find interesting.

The key is to use Twitter constructively and not be a “twit” about it!

By the way, it is possible to delete a tweet at any time. This can be useful if you spot an error, want to add a hashtag (as in #topic), or realise the tweet was a mistake. Either Derek doesn't realise or he's choosing to leave his tweets in place. (But beware: Deleting a tweet from Twitter won't delete it in any system to which it is fed, such as LinkedIn, nor will anyone's re-tweets be deleted. Note to self - triple-check all tweets before submitting!)

Mid-range ERP systems

This last week SAP announced the re-launch of “Business ByDesign” (BYD), originally launched in 2007. This is SAP’s SaaS cloud offering aimed at the mid-market, for organisations of around 100-500 employees, and 10 system users upwards (formerly 25). BYD provides a range of functionality across financial management, CRM and business operations. Further background on BYD will be in an article tomorrow.

For accountancy practices, IRIS has launched OpenApps that provides SaaS cloud services for online bookkeeping, document management and other options. As IRIS have found that security is users’ number one concern in using the cloud, interesting that they talk about encrypted data and “bank level security”.

Sage reminds me that Sage Line 500 and Sage 1000 (both spawned from the acquisition of Tetra Business Systems) will be morphed together into Sage ERP1000 v3.0 in July. This will have a completely re-written and improved front-end user interface. Like Sage’s other mid-market systems ERP X3 (formerly the French Adonix) and Accpac ERP (USA-sourced)), ERP 1000 is not available yet as SaaS cloud services.

In the mid-market, is on-premise or SaaS cloud more appropriate? The launch of BYD brings this question to the forefront.

Stop Press!

Just received a piece of spam email that has a link to GoogleReader. Turns out it’s an advert for “enhancement” products.

Link starts http://www.google.com/reader

More about GoogleReader in a future article.

Social networking - Business uses for Facebook apps

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how the UK’s political parties were using Facebook applications (apps) to help party supporters spread the word.

These apps were custom-written. But there are also an increasing number of apps that are available off the shelf. Many are aimed at individuals, but there’s also an increasing number devoted to businesses.

This article on business apps lists out a number of those available. It suggests “With the right combination of apps you could pretty much run your business from your Facebook profile”. Whilst this is unlikely to be practical for medium and large businesses, there’s none the less a number of apps that would be useful to these businesses.

The article sets out a number of headings, and I’ve picked out a few examples of potentially valuable apps:

Blog Promotion

• Display your blog in your personal or business's profile
• Put title and link into the feed

Business / Self Promotion

• Testimonials
• Widget to help others promote your business

Communication

• Telephone calls
• Free conference calls

Networking

• Introductions
• Business contact management

Collaboration

• Share documents
• Share tasks and projects

Audio/Visual

• Share product demos and commercials
• Share slide presentations

Miscellaneous

• Memorable page addresses
• Location map

Mindful of Facebook’s history of changing privacy permissions with little warning, I suggest caution with some of these, and in particular before you confirm an application link. Caution is also worthwhile for Facebook generally. But it’s here, it’s “hip and happening”, and there are ways to leverage it

Do feedback any experience with these apps as comments.

Escaping "Excel Hell" – how can Excel be enhanced?

Excel is in widespread usage, especially for budgeting and reporting. I was reminded the other day that as a result "Most users prefer Excel".


Whilst there’s always a place for specialist software, there are various ways that Excel can continue to be used, including

1. Linking to a database such as Access, MS SQL or a myriad of others
2. Budgeting and BI tools that use Excel as the principal user interface
3. Other Excel add-ins and add-ons

If anyone has hands-on experience of any of these tools, good or painful, please comment. Likewise if any vendors would like to mention their Excel-based solution, you’re welcome.

KPIs – what do they all mean?

Talking to businesses of all sizes, the term “KPIs” means different things to different people.

Yes the letters stand for “Key Performance Indicators”.

But some people just think of them as revenue, profit and other measures of performance. Is that all?

The real power comes when you consider what factors drive business performance, and how these can be measured. These can be both financial and non-financial.

Indeed it’s worth splitting KPis into two camps:

1. KRMs - Key Results Metrics
2. KPDs – Key Performance Drivers (the true KP “Indicators”)

I published a series of articles previously, which explore this distinction and the issues around them in greater detail. If you are interested, the articles can be found here

Cloud Computing - There’s more to the cloud than SaaS

Who remembers learning about the various types of cloud? Cumulus, altostratus and the rest. Ugh!

In cloud computing the services can be grouped into just three camps:

1. SaaS (Software as a Service): Any packaged software that is offered on a hosted basis across the internet, which users access through a web browser. This includes eBay, GoogleMail, salesforce.com and offerings in a host of areas such as accounting.
2. PaaS (Platform as a Service): This provides development tools to allow organisations and software developers to develop and deploy custom applications on a hosted platform, leaving the host to look after the system and basic administration
3. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): Here the host provides raw computing power – processing power, storage and/or network – whilst giving the user control over aspects such as firewalls

So if you see me saying “SaaS cloud”, it’s to distinguish this type from the others.

News Review - iPad / Office 2010

Here are some of the topics in last week’s news that will be of interest to mid-sized businesses:


Apple iPad Update

Further to last weeks’ article on "Apple iPad – fashion fad or business workhorse?", it was interesting to see Jake Humphrey using an iPad whilst presenting the Monaco Grand Prix (instead of his customary clipboard and mobile phone). Not sure if the screen was bright enough in the sunlight. We’ll see if it appears again in Turkey.

Orange, Vodafone and O2 have fully announced pricing for data plans for the iPad (if you buy the version with the 3G micro-SIM slot). But none of these are offering monthly plans that include an iPad, so it has to be bought separately. Apple are taking pre-orders for the iPad, for delivery in the UK later this month

If anyone has thoughts on the use of the iPad for business, please add a comment.

Microsoft Office 2010 and GoogleApps

Talking of pre-orders, Microsoft has just released Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 to key partners, and are taking pre-orders of Office 2010 in the UK from the public.

Microsoft will also be offering free cut-down versions of Office 2010 on-line called “Office Web“ from 15 June. The on-line version of SharePoint 2010 is getting mixed reviews, as to whether it is “cloud ready”.

Google has waded in to promote their own on-line GoogleApps, with a thinly-veiled dig at Office

Social networking for businesses – managing visitors' comments

I mentioned last week that British Airways had set up two Twitter accounts, BritishAirways and British_Airways which they still actively use.

They also set up some Facebook accounts last year. These include two accounts, “British Airways” and “British Airways plc”. Both now say “We currently aren't commenting on this site”. How are these being used? What lessons can be learned?

People can click the “Like” button on a Facebook business site to become a “fan”. This allows fans to add comments.

BA have stopped fans from adding comments on the BA site (after some had been added), but comments are still allowed on the plc site’s wall. These comments are of three types:

• A few messages of support for BA
• But more people complaining about BA or the strikers
• People advertising their own business or passions

Stopping fans posting to your wall doesn’t stop you making your own postings (BA have simply said they are not going to do so any longer). It is also possible to delete fans’ individual postings. But people can return to add their comment again, so it doesn’t necessarily stop the problem.

So is it wise for BA to allow comments on their wall? What about your own business?

Escaping “Excel Hell” for Forecasting & Budgeting

In simple situations, Excel is a great tool for producing forecasts and budgets:

• Linking P&L to cash flow and balance sheet (if well compiled)
• "What-if" modelling by changing key variables embedded in formulae
• Flexibility as the budget process develops
• Wide-spread availability and familiarity for budget-holders to compile their section of the budget

But as the situation becomes more complex, Excel’s weaknesses become apparent:

• Excel itself is not designed for multi-user collaboration
• Version control is difficult
• Multi-dimensional analysis of products, locations, projects, etc is difficult
• Co-ordination and consolidation is tricky
• Mistakes are therefore easy to make (as are SUM ranges missing important costs!)
• Models are time-consuming to use, for each and every change
• Drill-down from reporting systems to the composition of the budget is not easily available

In many businesses, the budgeting and forecasting process has become “Excel hell” – difficult to administer and taking far too long for each forecasting cycle. Nonetheless some 50-60% of larger businesses still use Excel as their principle forecasting tool.

As a result, requests are common for tools to help automate and manage the budgeting processes. Why are so many businesses still using Excel?

There are a number of good choices for budgeting and forecasting:

• Modules available alongside financial software suites
• Specialist systems using their own interface
• Specialist systems using Excel as a front-end
• Specialist systems using a web browser, available “on-demand” in the cloud or on-premise.

How can these tools be used successfully? There’s a 5-step approach:

1. Analyse the key aspects of the current Excel models
2. Establish other user requirements, such as links to reporting and accounting systems
3. Identify and assess the options available
4. Shortlist realistic options and choose a solution
5. Implement the software swiftly and professionally

If you’d like to talk further how to do this, please contact me.

Do feel free to comment about your own experiences.