News Update - Monday 11/4/11

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

Employee productivity: Balancing internet distractions

RFID and “Internet of Things”: With 2.8 billion RFID (Radio Frequency ID) tags expected to be sold this year, privacy is an important issue before applications are deployed

Sharepoint for iPad: 5 ways to keep connected

Twitter: Advanced Search launched to make it easier to search (must be logged into New Twitter)

News Update - Monday 4/4/11

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

Ideas Management: Harnessing ideas from customers and employees

Social Media: Following sets of people - your customers, your competitors, or whoever else is of interest (such as music)

Internet of Things: Connecting objects to the internet to improve effectiveness and efficiency

Using mobile apps for your marketing and sales:

Push Notifications: Best practices in mobile apps

In-app billing: For Android apps

Improving Business Continuity

Cloud systems are often able to provide better disaster recovery than you can arrange in-house. But this needs assessment. The cloud also produces new continuity issues to consider and address.

For those cloud services that are business-critical, what should you be doing to ensure business continuity?

This article written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW looks at the issues and makes some suggestions to minimise risks.

News Update - Monday 28/3/11

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

Apple iPad2: Now available in UK, models £20-£40 cheaper than original iPad last year

Tablet size matters?:

Pen-based computing: A step forward or a step back?

Internet of Things: Brands communicating with customers

Management Reporting - Improving Analysis

Garbage in, garbage out. Management reports are only as good as the quality of the underlying data, especially in terms of any analysis.

In this article I've written for the ICAEW IT Faculty, here are some tips to improve the quality of information entered.

News Update - Monday 21/3/11

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

SaaS Upgrades: The way Google apps upgrades take place is changing to give users more control. How will other SaaS providers respond?

iPad2 for Business: The embedded cameras open up new business possibilities. Available Friday 25 March in the UK.

Facebook: Estimates are that it accounts for 12% of all internet traffic

Social Media Activity at Work: Should organizations contractually limit social media activity of employees?

All Change in Social Media

Changes to the social media options available and changes to individual services are only to be expected.

In this article I've written for the ICAEW IT Faculty, here are two very recent examples highlighting changes to the way these services should be used.

News Update - Monday 14/3/11

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

Windows from an iPad: Tablets like the iPad are great, but they don’t let you run Windows software. Here’s a step in that direction

Your business on Facebook: Should you expect to be “liked”?

Flash to HTML5: With Flash unsupported on iPads/iPhones, conversion of some Flash is now possible with Wallaby

Buyer-initiated transactions: Here’s a new service to watch for if you can sell in local situations

Mobile Apps for Profit - To Improve Business Processes

The new smartphones, iPad2 and other tablets provide portability to open up new opportunities for sales and business efficiency.

Whether it’s management information or apps for mobile workers, business processes can be done better, faster, cheaper.

This article I’ve written for the ICAEW provides some examples. What are the possibilities in your business?

News Update - Monday 7/3/11

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

Tablets: Launch of the iPad2 and competitors puts tablets firmly on the map as business tools

Remote access to your PC: GoToMyPC for iPad lets you use your PC from an iPad

Mobile apps: Tools are becoming available to create DiY apps for smartphones and tablets

Cloud continuity: Problems with Google’s Gmail service shows how important it is to check your cloud providers’ backup, recovery and continuity arrangements

Cloud Apps – Handling Upgrades

The way cloud apps are upgraded is very different from the equivalent on-premise packages. How upgrades are handled can be a key factor in selecting a cloud solution, and making the most of an existing one.

What are the advantages of cloud app upgrades? Are there any issues? What questions are worth asking suppliers?

This article written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW explores these questions. How will the answers affect the way you use the cloud, now or later?

News Update - Monday 28/2/11

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

NFC on Mobile Phones: How “Near Field Communication” can change the way business activities take place

Collaboration on Office documents: Google Cloud Connect add-in for MS Office allows new web-based collaboration for Word, Excel and Powerpoint

Group Messaging: A different approach using Beluga

Secure Messaging: A new approach using Lockify

Business Performance Management - Taking your Tablet for Dashboards

Dashboards have become an important way of providing information to senior and junior management. Properly constructed they can focus on what is key to each person to support timely decision-making, by including both results and drivers.

This article written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW looks at the opportunities to provide dashboards on tablets such as the iPad. Would such an approach better serve your colleagues?

News Update - Monday 21/2/11

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

Libyan .ly Links (such as bit.ly): With the Libyan internet down, how long will your .ly links work?

Facebook Marketing: What does and doesn’t work?

Tablet Computers: Anticipated growth could mean faster adoption in business than any type of device before

An Inside Job – Using Social Tools within Business

Social media tools are being used by businesses to communicate publicly with customers. Increasingly these tools and similar internet-based software are being used privately within a business or with trusted partners for business benefit.

This article written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW looks at the new opportunities and how to handle the new risks. Are you ready?

News Update - Monday 14/2/11

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

BI on iPad: As tablets such as the iPad become more widely used, here are some ideas to use business intelligence on the move

Cloud security: Another cloud service adds optional encryption

Twitter usage: A cautionary tale and reminder that tweets are not just viewable by followers. Do your colleagues know?

Micropayments: Paypal is launching a new service for the sale of digital products

Cloud Computing – Inevitable?

This week someone asked me “Is cloud computing inevitable?” Will we only be using cloud systems in business and other organisations by say 2015?

This article written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW provides a summary for management of the types and uses of cloud computing, together with the pros and cons.

News Update - Monday 7/2/11

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

Payments using mobile phones: O2 announces plans to use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology on the latest mobiles

Microblogging within businesses: New services appearing to let personnel communicate through microblogging

Social productivity: Now Salesforce.com has bought Manymoon, here’s another way for personnel to communicate to share, track and complete work items

Web sites for tablets: Here are some design tips to let your website appear well on a tablet computer

Using Two-Dimensional Barcodes

We’re all familiar with the barcodes on items we buy from the supermarket. But they can only hold short codes. Two-dimensional barcodes can hold 1500 or more characters of information. How can they be used profitably?

Here is an article written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW

Cloud Computing – How about Private Cloud?

Putting software applications “into the cloud” can mean different things. Often it means using software hosted by a third party on a shared, “public” basis, accessible via the internet, and paid for by some form of subscription.

But what if that isn’t practical for some technical or commercial reason?

On-premise software is increasingly being made available so it can be accessed via a web browser and/or a smartphone app. The software may or may not be available on a hosted basis. The functionality may be as good as, or perhaps better than, options available as public cloud. So such systems can still be a valid business solution implemented in-house.

Running such software in-house is often referred to as “private cloud” - though some people would prefer this term to only apply to specific technical set-ups more commonly used in public cloud installations.

Private cloud systems share some of the benefits of public cloud computing, notably a familiar browser-based look and feel that can be accessed from anywhere where there is an internet connection. But you would still have to buy the hardware and software, and it doesn’t provide other benefits of public cloud, such as delegating administration of the system to a professional partner (unless your business is big enough to use traditional outsourcing). 

Sometimes urgency means a public cloud system needs to be chosen, as this will be quicker to get the implementation started. But where possible, it’s worth comparing the functionality of on-premise and cloud applications, (together with the other pros and cons) to ensure the solution chosen is most appropriate to the needs and aspirations of the business.

News Update - Monday 31/1/11

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

Private Social Networks: If you’d like to collaborate with colleagues in a similar way to Facebook or Twitter, there are various tools to set up a private social network. SalesForce are extending the availability of their Chatter service

Internet Security: Now the Facebook boss’s account has been hacked, let’s hope the security of Facebook and other cloud services will continue to be a priority

Privacy Expectations: Business is about trust. Any interactions with customers should use their data within their expectations, or risk losing their trust and their business.

LibreOffice: With OpenOffice now subsumed into Oracle, the open-source office suite reappears in a new guise as LibreOffice 3

Social Media – Why Use It For Your Business?

If you are already using social media for your business, the answer to “Why use it?” may be obvious. But if are still unclear of its merits, or you aren’t using social media yet, then this brief introduction will be useful.

“Social media” is a collection of services including social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter. Each service is best suited to specific situations.

As a business, you can set up an account with any of these services that are relevant. This can be for your company, a specific brand, or yourself as an individual. People can then link to the account from their own account, such as by clicking a “Follow” or “Like” button.  You can then:

1. Broadcast to these people, including text, photos, videos and links to blogs or web sites
2. Get feedback and questions from these people, and enter into conversations
3. In some cases allow discussions between these people. This can be positive or negative, so the latter needs to be handled carefully

The main uses are therefore for:

1. Marketing, such as news announcements and special offers
2. Interacting with influencers and other people who you can help or can help you
3. Customer service, including answering questions
4. Technical support, such as for software
5. Public service announcements

This can be for Business to Consumer (B2C) or Business to Consumer (B2B), depending on the service used

There are also services for specific purposes, such as to issue electronic discount coupons and based around location, which are becoming increasingly popular.

As with many things, a key reason to use social media is to get ahead of your competitors, or not to be left behind. However using it poorly can be detrimental to your business, and it's worth having clear objectives of what you are trying to achieve. There’s a number of practical do’s and don’ts.

Bear in mind that these services are public. They don’t replace the need for private communication mechanisms through your website, such as for complaints.

Taking a look at the main services:

Facebook

You set up an account using “Pages”, which people can “Like”. For them your site becomes similar to one of their friends.

You can set whether you will allow people to add comments, photos, videos and/or links on your “wall”. If you do , then you can hold a conversation just with that person, or a discussion involving potentially many people.

As Facebook tends to be used in a personal capacity, this service is best for B2C and of limited use for B2B.

Twitter

By setting up an account people can “follow” the tweets that you send. They can also send you tweets, which you can choose to reply to or not.

Tweets are only 140 characters. But they can contain links to web sites, which is also the basis for communicating photos, videos and longer pieces of text.

Twitter can be used for both B2C and B2B.

MySpace

In 2006 this was the leading social networking service worldwide, but has since been eclipsed by Facebook. MySpace has recently announced that they will become a media hub for music, TV and video. They now link to Facebook for social networking.

MySpace is therefore of limited business interest. However for businesses in entertainment, especially musical acts, it is still a useful place to have an account.

YouTube

By posting a video onto YouTube:
•    People can comment on the video
•    You can link to the video from your web site, tweets, etc
•    You can embed the video into a web page on your main site


There are many other systems, so this article has only been a quick introduction to the uses of social media. If you would like to discuss further, do contact me.

Forecasting and Performance Analysis - Alternative Systems

Forward planning and performance monitoring are both important management functions for any business or organisation.  This is true at any time, but especially when finance is being raised or banking facilities need to be monitored.

Budgeting and forecasting is a regular activity for most organisations, together with variance analysis against actuals.

But all too often these processes are using systems which are difficult to use and maintain. In many organisations they are the most ineffective practices in management. They take everyone too much time.

In this article I've written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW, here are some tips for how alternative systems can help, and what to look out for.

Cloud Computing – Which Type? Does it Matter?

When putting your business applications such as accounting and CRM “into the cloud”, there are various ways this can be achieved.

In each case the server that stores your data and runs the centralised software is hosted by a third party, and you typically pay a form of subscription. This is therefore called “Software as a Service” (SaaS). The main methods are:

• “Pure SaaS”: Systems written specifically for the internet, accessible using a web browser. Usually adopt a multi-tenancy database whereby the various users share the server and software.
• Hosted traditional software: If a system can be run on-premise and accessed remotely through a comms link, it has the potential to be hosted in the cloud.
• Hosted systems that you access using software other than a web-browser. This allows the whole screen to be optimised for the application.
• Smartphone/tablet apps: Again you can access the hosted system using an app downloaded to the device

These methods are termed “public cloud”. There is also the concept of “private cloud”, whereby systems written for the internet are run on-premise (or hosted by your regular outsourcer).

Whilst some people would disagree whether all these methods qualify as “cloud”, they nonetheless share many of the benefits and risks. Each method then has its own pros and cons. For example “pure SaaS” is usually only suitable if you can work with the standard functionality that everyone is sharing. If you need any custom functionality, you’ll usually need to take a different approach.

When looking at a particular offering that is being called “cloud”, it is worth understanding exactly how it will work and the practical pros and cons. This can have a significant effect on which service you decide to use.

If you would like help in this assessment, do give me a call on 01628 632914 or send me an email.

News Update - Monday 24/1/11

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

Use of Quick Response (QR) codes. Initially for tracking parts in vehicle manufacture, there are other uses in general business now smartphones with QR readers are becoming widely available

Barcode display. Conversely getting a smartphone to display a barcode can unlock activities such as payments from a pre-paid account.

Tablet computers such as the iPad.  Why use them in your business?

Passphrase rather than password. A more powerful security technique we’re likely to see more frequently

Social Media – Business Impact

In the last few days MySpace has announced that nearly half its workforce will be made redundant, and that the business will be sold or spun off.

So what?

The story has several practical implications for using social networking profitably, by businesses large and small. These include pitfalls to avoid, and opportunities to leverage.

In this article I've written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW, here are some tips for using social media profitably.

Escaping Excel Hell – Cutting Reporting Time

Excel is an excellent presentation tool for reporting. But a key problem is that business analysts spend too much manipulating data, and not enough time analysing. Another issue is the struggle to have a report available by its deadline.

One aspect of this is the time needed to get data accurately from a source system into Excel, which might currently involve re-keying.

There are several solutions to this, depending on the nature of the source system, the data volumes, and the nature of the report. These include:

1. Export data from the source system, and import it, by one of several techniques. This is especially useful if you have a template to automatically populate, such as a regular monthly or weekly report.
2. Extract data directly into Excel from the source database. Depending on version, Excel has standard data links, including links into pivot tables. Add-ins are also available to make the process as easy as possible.
3. Extract data into a database such as Access, where it can be checked and managed, for example to check and repair analysis fields. That database can then be the source into Excel.

Linking directly into the source system helps to maintain a "single version of the truth", but this isn't always practical. The next best thing is to export into a database (data warehouse), especially if multiple sources are involved. This then provides the single version that members of the organisation can access.

If you’d like further help with improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your reporting, do ring me on 01628 632914, or send me an email.

Performance Management – Will Your Business Fly?

Business performance management usually refers to managing the performance of an existing business. But the first step with a new business is to assess whether it will fly!

Further down the track, market changes may mean performance has dropped and action needs to be taken. How should it continue? Or there’s the opportunity to start a new business. Again will it fly?

Many new businesses quickly come to grief, or fall well short of expectations. Usually this is because the basics haven’t been covered:

1. What Demand for the Product or Service? Preferably solving a “headache” that is urgent. Is the need in some way repetitive? Both make selling far cheaper.
2. Competitive Position? From the customer’s viewpoint, what other options are there to solve the issue? Strengths and weaknesses? Pricing? How marketed and sold? How are they getting on?
3. Marketing and Sales Approach? How’s this best done? Off the page? Resellers? How much will it cost, including any sales commissions and others’ margin?
4. Is the Business Model Profitable? What different approaches are there? Putting everything together, would the business provide a good return to an external investor (or indeed yourself)?

Would you buy a house without getting an independent survey?

Likewise would you start (or change) a business without an independent review?

Here’s the Camwells approach, which with its unique traffic light feedback provides you with:

1. Extra confidence when the business is clearly a good idea
2. Ideas to improve the proposition, or address weaknesses
3. Just like a house survey, an opportunity to spot any potential showstoppers which you’ll need to address before your investment in money and time is wasted

Do ring me on 01628 632914 or send an email if you’d like to take advantage of this service. Confidentiality is paramount.

Cloud Computing - Using Security Questions

Logging into Facebook yesterday I was prompted to provide the answer to one of several “security questions”. These were factual questions including “Where was your mother born” and “Last 5 digits of driver’s licence”.

Choosing one that nobody else could easily guess, I wondered what it could be used for. It turns out there is only one usage, to unlock an account if you cannot otherwise use the original email address and password. To avoid someone changing the security answer if they managed to hack the account, the answer cannot be changed.

I had hoped the security question would be asked each time I logged in, even if only as an option I could switch on or off. This would have provided a third level of security, in addition to username and password. As with many cloud systems, the userid for Facebook is an email address which is usually public knowledge. The only barrier then is the password, which can often be easily guessed. Having to answer an additional security question would make the account much more difficult to hack.

For many apps, it’s important to avoid an account being hacked. For accounting, a hacker could post an invoice for payment, or could glean private information. For CRM, customer contact information could be stolen. 

Almost every banking system has at least three levels of security, such as a PIN, a second password, or the use of some physical device. They also tend to ask for random letters from the PIN or password, so the whole password can't be intercepted.

When you assessing whether to use a specific cloud-based system, what access security is provided? If just a userid and password, then is that sufficient for that system and your data?

News Update - Monday 17/1/11

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

Tablets and Smartphones: The recent Consumer Electronics Show had a raft of new products, based mainly on Android. Here are some of the best. For business, there are opportunities to sell/provide apps to end-users, or provide a means to take advantage of the growing library of downloadable apps.

SaaS adoption: Forester expects some 25% of 123 types of software products run on-premise will be disrupted by Software as a Service cloud offerings

New web-based services: On the back of SaaS are services that use hosted apps, in this example to improve contract renewal rates

Mobile payments: Whilst you can use a mobile to make lo-value purchases such as car parking, ways for salespeople to use their mobile phone to swipe credit cards for higher valued transactions are on their way here.

Social Media – How (Not) To Handle Complaints

For a business, a customer is much more likely to spread news of a bad experience than they will a good one.

Social media provides the opportunity to spread bad news far further and faster.

This can be, for example:

• On their own Facebook wall for their friends to see
• By sending out tweets for their followers to see
• By putting a comment on a location-based service such as Foursquare, for anyone else visiting that establishment
• By putting a comment on your business’s Facebook wall (if you have one and you allow comments), for other customers to see

What should you do?

The first challenge is to identify when your business is being maligned. Comments on your own wall should be obvious, and there are various tools available to search the other social media tools.

If the complaint appears to be true, then you can respond to it in accordance with your usual customer service principles. Whether you then publicise your response, such as by a reply to the posting, is up to you. If the complaint is snowballing by involving other people, your response needs special care.

If the customer looks like they are trying it on, then your response would vary accordingly.

But what if the complaint appears to be untrue? Has it been posted by a competitor or a genuine customer?

What about the Law?

The laws of libel and slander apply equally to social media as to any other form of communication. Should you go to law?

That is a tricky question. They say “any publicity is good publicity”. Suing a competitor is likely to provide both you and them with publicity. But what if it is a customer?

The recent case of System Graph suing a customer for EUR200k in Greece highlights the dilemma. Apparently the customer had a legitimate complaint, and after the initial experience couldn’t trust System Graph to put it right, which they had offered to do. He made a posting on Twitter about the company, which the company considers defamatory.

The PR professionals appear to be in agreement that legal action is not advisable. Would you want your company’s reputation to be one of suing customers, whether the action proves successful or not?

Excel Add-ins for Management Reporting

Just a reminder that if you want to use Excel for dashboards or management reporting, there are three useful sets of add-ins:

1. Gauges
2. Sparklines (mini graphs)
3. Traffic Light Charts

Click each link for further details.

What's Driving Revenue, Costs and Cash Flow?

At the end of each period, you look at your business results and hopefully admire the revenue, the margin and the net profit. You may even look at the balance sheet, especially if your bankers are interested in key ratios.

But maybe there's a problem with a result, and you need to fix it. What’s driving these figures?

If you were running a multi-stage production process, such as a brewery, you’d have a control room that was monitoring each stage of the process. Each key statistic would be represented on a gauge or other form of display.

A business is like a multi-stage process - typically marketing to sales to operations to cash, depending on the business. What are the key statistics that you need to see? How often do you need them?

These statistics are known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), or Key Performance Drivers (KPDs) to distinguish them from results such as revenue.

Designing a set of KPDs has to be done very carefully to ensure they drive behaviour which is actually consistent with corporate objectives. It is easy to implement KPDs which actually promote the wrong behaviour.

KPDs provide early warning of where business processes are off-track, and the insight to tackle any shortfall in results.

If you'd like to take advantage of KPDs, do contact me by email or by phone on 01628 632914.

Cloud Computing – Reducing Costs using VideoConferencing

The improvements in the internet are opening up a whole new set of applications that are remotely hosted within the cloud. In each case all you need to use them is a PC (or other suitable device), a reasonable internet connection, and typically a web browser.

Videoconferencing has proved increasingly popular for multi-site organisations, to reduce the need to travel and thereby cut costs, time and hassle. But videoconferencing has typically required use of a meeting room and an expensive teleconferencing system.

You are probably familiar with Skype as an internet-based system that allows simple videoconferencing from your PC desktop to one other person, announced to be extended to 5 or so. However video quality can be poor and unreliable.

There are now other offerings that offer business-class video meetings to the desktop, for a modest monthly fee. One system better optimised for the internet, delivers on a reliable basis up to HD quality. It is possible to have up to 100 participants at individual PCs, or in combination with a room system. Whoever is speaking takes centre stage on the screen. It is also possible for any speaker to display a presentation, document or other window from their desktop. Two screens allows the presentation on one screen, and the video links on the other.

This opens up a wide variety of possibilities, where holding a virtual meeting is far cheaper and easier than traveling. Video meetings can also significantly improve a meeting's effectiveness. For example:

Sales Teams
The sales director can now hold face-to-face meetings with some or all of their team, wherever they are located. This allows such meetings to be held more regularly than  would otherwise be possible.

Development Teams
Multiple members of the team can join a video call, even if working in remote locations, and can show prototypes or their other work to each other.

Group Board meetings
Directors can join in video Board meetings from their desk or home, almost wherever they are. If some of the members are able to meet physically in a videoconferencing room, then those that can’t can join in.

Recruitment
Initial interviews can take place with candidates by inviting them as a guest.

Telemedicine
Other 1to1 calls can still take place at high quality, such as doctors' discussions with patients, or any other professional with their clients.

Remote Training
One trainer can relate to up to 100 delegates at individual locations, where the person asking a question is clearly displayed. Alternatively, the course can be presented on a large screen in HD quality to a room.


If you’d like further details of these options, do contact me by email or ring me on +44(0)1628 632914.

System Consequences of the VAT Rate Change

Now the standard VAT rate in  the UK has increased, here are some tips on dealing with it with your systems over the transition period.

This is the latest in a series of articles I've written for the IT Faculty of the ICAEW. These cover how to benefit from management reporting, KPIs, cloud computing and other topics to profit from technology.

Social Media - Why Use Twitter?

Last week we looked at some tips on how to use Twitter, but not why. There are four main reasons, which we shall explore in turn:

1. Broadcasting
2. Following
3. 1-2-1 messaging
4. Searching and discussing

1) BROADCASTING

Whenever you send a message on Twitter, called a "tweet", this is a public broadcast (unless you send a private Direct Message, discussed below):

• People who follow you can see it
• If they "retweet" it to their followers, they can see it
• People who look at your profile can see it
• Anyone searching for a word or phrase in your tweet can see it

I say "can see it" as it is best to assume that a tweet will only be read by people who are logged into Twitter and reading their tweets within one hour of a tweet being posted. Regular tweeting, without being excessive or too repetitive, is therefore a good idea if you are trying to get a message across.  

Tweets are simple, short text messages no longer than 140 characters (140C). But you can include a link to a web page, a blog, a photo or video, or indeed anything else that can be linked. This makes it a powerful form of communication.

This is of obvious interest to any business or celebrity wishing to promote a product, book, show or blog. It is also a cheap, simple way of organisations such as IT companies or emergency services to alert the public to important information.

Individuals may also wish to broadcast their thoughts, photos etc to the world. Clubs, societies and families may wish to provide information to members, in which case you can restrict followers to people you approve.

You can set up multiple accounts for different purposes if you wish.

2) FOLLOWING

Many people have little to tweet, but may do so occasionally. For them the main point of Twitter is to follow interesting people, be they celebrities, organisations or other individuals.

Anyone can follow anyone else, though each account holder can "block" people they don't want, or can set their account to approve follower requests.

By following someone, this typically brings your existence to that person's attention, so can be a useful business marketing tactic.

3) 1-2-1 MESSAGING

Anyone can send a message to anyone else, unless they have been blocked, by putting their @username in the tweet. This can be someone you know, or a total stranger. You can send the message to more than one person, subject to the 140C overall limit.

Provided you talk in a similar way as you would to someone you'd just met in a pub, and don't overdo the number of tweets, most people will respond. Even well-known celebrities will respond on occasions, which can be interesting.

If someone follows you, you can send them a "Direct Message", which is private between you. Follow each other and you can hold a private conversation. Just start each tweet "DM @username" followed by your message. However the recipient can retweet your DM publicly, so privacy is not guaranteed.

Note also that non-DM messages sent to someone will appear in your profile. Also, if someone is following both you and the recipient, they will see the conversation in their main “timeline” listing of tweets. 

People use different software to access Twitter, and each has a different way of accessing their DMs and other tweets mentioning their username. Some software makes these tweets very obvious, others less so. Also not everyone accesses their account regularly, just like email, so don't expect an immediate response.

4) SEARCHING AND DISCUSSING

You can search for any word or phrase in tweets, if there is a topic you are interested in. You can also search for @usernames, which will display all tweets except DMs sent by that person and to that person. You can therefore see the tweets being sent into a radio/TV show or celebrity.

To aid searches, people put "hashtags" starting with the # symbol in their tweets. This could be their comments using #bcs10 for a conference called Business Cloud Summit 2010, or #scd for a TV show such as Strictly Come Dancing. The shorter the hashtag the better. Hashtags can be placed anywhere in the tweet, though often tagged onto the end of a message.

By following hashtags using a search, you can see what’s being said and contribute as much or as little as you wish to the debate - be it frivolous or serious.

IN CONCLUSION

So Twitter gives you the opportunity to broadcast, follow, communicate privately and join in discussions. As it is currently a free service, it can be a powerful communication mechanism.

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Escaping Excel Hell – Tips for Forecasting and Budgeting

When preparing a budget or forecast, especially if extra funds are being sought, the last thing you want is a major error. If it is found by the potential funder it’s one problem. Not spotting it at all is another. Unfortunately it is very easy to make a mistake using Excel, such as missing costs and getting links between sheets incorrect.

Excel is a great tool for one person preparing a budget for a simple business. As things get more complex, other tools are more appropriate to handle aggregation and use by multiple people. Some of these tools use Excel as the user interface, or a grid that looks somewhat like Excel.

Whatever tool is used, it’s important to remember:

• Cash flow is typically what matters, and this is not the same as the P&L account. There can be significant timing differences. Often costs have to be paid in advance, including capital expenditure, and customers may pay some significant time after a sale.
• Funders, especially banks, like to see projected balance sheets, against which the level of lending is assessed.
• As mentioned above, with Excel it is extremely easy to make a mistake in formulae or links.

To address all these points, it is vital that the forecasting model consists of three main elements:

• Profit and Loss account
• Cash Flow
• Balance Sheet

If these all balance, there can be some comfort in the formulae, although it is still necessary to check the model carefully.

If you would like help in building a successful forecasting model, do ring me on 01628 632914 or send me an email.

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Performance Management – Garbage In, Garbage Out

Management information needs to be timely, relevant, clear and reliable.

Relevant and clear comes from the design of what information is presented in what way. Timely comes from ensuring that the information process is efficient and cost-effective.

But none of this is worth anything unless the information is reliable. Garbage in produces garbage out. Reliable information requires events to be recorded and transactions to be processed as accurately as practical.

In many cases information is reliant on analysis by department, region, product type or some other grouping.

eProcurement systems can make purchasing more efficient. They can also help to ensure costs are recorded against the correct department.

On the sales side, analysis is done typically in one of two ways:

• Analysis codes against customers, products etc are pulled into each transaction, where they can perhaps be manually adjusted, or are otherwise linked when a report is run
• Analysis codes are input to the system when each transaction is processed

In either case it is important that analysis data is entered accurately if reports that are reliant on it are to be in any way accurate. Fields left blank are an obvious problem, and it helps if values are validated, perhaps from a drop-down list. But this also means choosing an appropriate value from this list.

This may not always be possible – for example, the transaction is urgent and the information may not be to hand. If this is a common issue, it may be sensible to include “Unknown” as a value to choose rather than guessing. Such transactions can then be reviewed and a more appropriate value chosen.

In any case it is worth reviewing and correcting analysis codes before information is passed to people who will make decisions based on that information.

Setting up a reliable management information system therefore needs careful thought and design.

If you’d like to discuss this further, do ring me on 01628 632914 or send me an email.

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Cloud Computing - Issues to Watch

Last week we looked at the key benefits of cloud computing and how to select a SaaS (Software as a Service) system.

In this article we will look at some of the issues to watch out for when selecting a cloud system. These need to be covered by the end-user, though in many cases with help from and dependency upon the provider. Some issues are highlighted in the “Code of Practice” recently published by the Cloud Industry Forum, to which section references relate:

A.1.4: Provider going out of business: What arrangements are in place if the hosting company goes out of business or has a major technical malfunction? What if one of the other parties in the supply chain goes under? For how long will these arrangements run? What contingency plans can be put in place that could be used within these timescales?

A.2.1: Commercial Terms: Worth understanding not only the basics now, but what happens on renewal of periodic contracts? What happens at termination? (further details in section A.2.4)

A.2.7: Information Security: Are arrangements for user access, password storage, the use of encryption and other security issues adequate for the specific system and data?

A.2.8: Data Protection and Other Legal Matters: Are data storage locations acceptable for Data Protection and other legal reasons, such as access by foreign government organisations?

A.2.9: Service Continuity: Backup and disaster recovery arrangements are often better with cloud services than are achieved with on-premise systems. But what are those arrangements, and are they good enough?

Functionality: It is usually easy to trial a SaaS system. This is important as it is not usually possible to change the software beyond the configuration options offered. It may be possible to link to independent bolt-on software, but what are the possibilities?

Software Upgrades: Do you get sufficient visibility of upgrades, chance to test them, and chance to amend staff guidance before they go live? When do upgrades take place, and can you choose when?

User Access to Internet: Are there practical contingency arrangements in place should the usual means of accessing the internet malfunction?

System Speed: This is not usually an issue, but are response times adequate for the specific application with the internet access available? At all required locations?

Whilst the benefits of using a cloud system can be significant, they can only be consistently achieved if matched by suitable arrangements in all the areas above.

If you’d like further guidance, do ring me on 01628 632914 or contact me by email.

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News Update - Monday 20/12/10

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

Upgrading to MSOffice 2010/Windows7: With many businesses expected to make the transition in the next few months, why is it so difficult? Why do we put up with such problems?

Alternatives to MSOffice: With Sun’s OpenOffice the only real desktop alternative, Sun’s acquisition by Oracle has resulted in the “Oracle Cloud” productivity software alongside GoogleApps, Microsoft’s own Office 365 and a few others in the cloud

Google’s ChromeOS: With devices that run Google’s ChromeOS operating system being launched as a pilot, be aware that the idea is to use cloud-based apps rather than load any apps on the device

Twitter – Follow or Tweet: Some interesting statistics about how usage of Twitter has changed in 2010 compared to 2009. Here are some further tips on using Twitter.

A final thought  - It’s all in the name: Looking at “To Skype”, it reminded me that names that also work as verbs have a distinct advantage in a competitive market. “To Google”, “To Hoover” and slightly differently “To Tweet” capture interest in a way that “To iTunes” and “To Bing” doesn’t. How do your business names fare as verbs?

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Social Media – Some Twitter Tips

Whether you are using Twitter for business or personal purposes, are new to it or experienced, here are some tips to utilise the tool without falling into pitfalls:

Accessing Twitter

By going to www.twitter.com you will be able to sign up to the service, and will be presented with a means of posting messages (“tweets”) and seeing tweets posted by others.

Having opened an account you do not need to use Twitter itself. Popular alternatives “apps” are Tweetdeck, Twitterific, Hootsuite and a host of others. The choice is dependent on whether you are using a PC, a Mac, an iPad or which type of mobile phone. The format and way of working varies significantly, and as the apps are usually free, it is worth trying a few out.

Photos, Videos, Long Tweets and Scheduling

Tweets are short text messages, no more than 140 characters (140C), originally designed to be used in conjunction with SMS text messaging.

By including a weblink in the text, it is possible to link to photos, videos and longer text. It is also possible to pre-schedule tweets so they are made automatically at the appointed time.

Popular add-on tools include plixi.com, twitpic.com and twitlonger.com . You’ll see other people using other tools in their tweets.

Some of these tools can be used on their own, or with other tools such as Facebook. To use them with Twitter, the usual approach is:

• Log in to chosen Twitter account
• Find and log into the required add-on service using “Sign in with Twitter”
• Add photo etc to the add-on tool, which will automatically post into Twitter

Following & Consequences

There’s no need to post messages (“tweets”) to Twitter regularly. You can simply follow other people to read their tweets. These can be celebrities, friends or anyone who might be interesting.

Depending on the Twitter software tool you’re using, there is usually a “Follow” button next to their name. The consequences of following are:

• You will see their public tweets in your listing (“timeline”)
• They will be able to send you private “direct messages” (DMs) that no-one else will see
• Other people can see that you are following them
• They will usually be notified that you are following them, which usefully brings you and what you offer to their attention

Some people will follow you back, either automatically or when they see you’re following them. If this happens:

• You will be able to send private DMs to them too.
• They will see your tweets in their timeline

Conversely, you need to consider whether to follow everyone back or not, as both DMs and following can have drawbacks.

How Private are your Tweets

Unless you start a tweet “DM @recipient message” which will only go to the intended recipient you have to assume all tweets are public:

• Followers will see them
• They will appear in the list of tweets that people see if they view your account
• They will appear in the public timeline used for searches (which is how the Robin Hood airport tweet was spotted that resulted in a criminal prosecution)

If you start a tweet @recipient, this will not usually appear in followers’ timelines, but:

• Will also appear in the list of tweets that people see if they view your account
• Will appear in someone’s timeline if they are following both you and the @recipient

There are many other quirks to the way Twitter works. Further tips are in the “Twitter Away” blog.

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Escaping Excel Hell – Automating Business Processes

Excel is a marvelous software tool. It’s pretty well standard on business PCs, and most people have at least a rudimentary knowledge of how it works.

You can list data in a simple database, and use the range of formulae to add and manipulate data. So Excel (or some other spreadsheet) is often the first tool thought of and used for a business application such as order processing or budgeting.

However it’s worth thinking of Excel as clever electronic paper, suffering from similar drawbacks:

• Excel has no automatic facilities for additions. All formulae have to be set up manually, directly or by copying, and it is easy to make errors
• Excel is a “personal productivity” tool which is not designed for use by more than one person. Whilst it is possible to share and link spreadsheets, again there is considerable possibility of error.
• Data entry does not have an audit trail. Whilst it is convenient that changes can be made easily, no changes will get logged.
• Once you’ve got a database of data, you can produce summaries by creating additional tables or pivot tables, but regular reporting is difficult
• You won’t get any workflow capabilities to automate processes

So Excel can be very useful to generate small-scale systems. But for larger systems, or a small system that has grown, a more appropriate solution is needed.

Sometimes it is possible to find a package that does exactly what’s needed, in the cloud or to buy to use on-premise, such as for a simple order processing system. In other cases a system needs to be customised to do what is required. For financial systems, it may be appropriate to bolt this onto a packaged accounting system, and share aspects such as the customer, supplier and product details.

The first stage is to document exactly what is required, including data structures, basic workflow process and automation sought, reporting needs, data volumes and other key aspects.

Then the market can be assessed, and a short list established for demonstration and/or trials. Selection is an art.

Implementation needs to be handled carefully, to ensure the software works, people know how to use it properly, and initial data is loaded correctly. Any changes to the business and how it operates need especial care.

Camwells has experience of all stages of a range of packaged and bespoke solutions to replace Excel. If you would like to talk further, please ring me on 01628 632914 or send an email.

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Performance Management - Designing Business Metrics

When designing the metrics which you will use to monitor and control your business, it’s important to ensure they drive appropriate behaviour.

This is especially important with any metric with one figure being divided by another.

For example it is important in a B2B (business-to-business) sales team to convert quotes into orders. So how about monitoring the conversion rate of quotes to orders by salesman or region, by dividing the value of orders by the value of quotes?

Before you do so there are two main issues, manipulation and timing.

On manipulation, the conversion rate can be improved not by better conversion, but simply by only raising quotes that are likely to become orders, and not bother with others.

That’s probably not the sort of behaviour you want to encourage, as you may miss out on business. Depending on how tightly you like to qualify prospects, you may prefer to raise quotes in less likely situations. So it will also be appropriate to monitor the total value of quotes, and a ratio like quotes to first-time visits to get a better picture.

There’s then a matter of timing. There’s no point comparing the value of sales this month to the value of quotes raised this month if there is any significant delay between quote and order. If it’s possible to discover when quotes are lost and why, another approach is to look at each month’s (or week’s) quotes and establish the ratios between wins, losses, not proceeded and still in progress. This may be too complex, and "keep it simple" is a good principle. The best approach will depend on the business and its sales methods.

Similar principles apply in other areas of a business. The point is that designing a set of business metrics requires careful thought to ensure they make sense, and will drive the right behaviour.

If you’d like to discuss this further, do give me a call on 01628 632914 or contact me via email.

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Cloud Computing - Selecting a SaaS System

When I first used an application that was provided as "Software as a Service" (SaaS), there were five clear benefits:

1. We had access to an internet-enabled system that couldn’t be afforded in-house
2. The system could be used and maintained from anywhere in the world with an internet connection
3. The provider looked after all the data security, administration and disaster recovery
4. Payment only had to be made according to the extent used.
5. We could start using the system straight away

These benefits are still applicable today with SaaS cloud systems.

However when you go looking for a cloud system, the choice is very much dependent on which sector. There’s lots of choice for bookkeeping and CRM, for example, but less for more elaborate systems.

With cloud systems, they are typically “multi-tenancy”, which means all the users share the same functional software code. It may be possible to bolt extra customised functions on, but this shouldn’t be taken for granted. Whilst customising an on-premise package itself is best avoided, there are times when the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. But with SaaS cloud packages, in-app customisation is almost always unavailable.

So when choosing software it is worth checking that the software will do the job you need of it today and as far as can be foreseen for the next few years. A concise formal specification covering the key points helps. Cloud apps can usually be trialed relatively easily, but it’s important this is done thoroughly for any app of business importance.

In practice you may need to look at cloud solutions alongside on-premise solutions. Running a selection project involving SaaS cloud solutions is therefore somewhat different from pure on-premise. Here is a selection process summary which I hope you find useful.

If you would like to discuss this further, do ring 01628 632914 or contact me by email

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News Update - Monday 13/12/10

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

Personal Privacy: If you are operating on the web, privacy for your customers, employees and partners matters. Here’s a round-up of privacy with key players in social media and the web

Security Tips for Business: After Wikileaks, here are three simple tips for improving data security in your business

Platform as a Service: If you want to develop apps or mobile and social media, here is a cloud-based database system from the salesforce.com stable that will be launched in early 2011

In-App Purchases: Technology is now coming forward to allow purchases to be made from within an app on a mobile device, such as to run it, so it can be initially provided free.

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Social Media - What Can Digg Do For You?

You may hear a lot about this system called Digg. But what can it do for you?

Digg is in a branch of social media called “social news”. It allows anyone who is registered to the service to post a link to an article or web page, to appear on the system. People who see it will decide whether to “Digg it”, so it rises further up the rankings.

The top business story today isn’t news, but “Top 10 Ways to Fire the Client From Hell"

Whilst the service is US-based and a lot of the news and articles are from the US, it can be very useful:

• To find interesting and useful articles
• To promote your own blog or webpages

It’s free to use, so why not give it a try?

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Escaping Excel Hell - Management Reporting

If you have two choices of how to produce management reports, which would you prefer:

1. Into a web browser direct from the relevant system(s)?
2. Into Excel and manipulate before distribution?

Most people would choose option 1, as that avoids the need for manual manipulation, which takes time and may introduce errors.

But if you want to add commentary to a report, there needs to be the means to do it.

There will also be differences in the graphics available, and the overall ability to format the reports.

So the best direct reporting tools can be magnificent, otherwise is it Excel?

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Performance Management - Multi-Dimensional Forecasting and Reporting

You sell 60 products across 25 countries. In one country you have 5 salespeople. Fairly modest numbers – there could be thousands of products and many more salespeople.

Now you want to forecast sales, cost of sales and gross profit by month. You may have significantly different sales prices, purchase costs or shipment costs in different countries. What about currency and management of currency exposures?

You’ll also want to report actual information against budgets and re-forecasts.

There are just too many dimensions for Excel to handle comfortably. So you have three choices:

• Somehow set up all the spreadsheets and consolidate them
• Simplify the situation into groups of products, groups of countries, and ignore salesperson
• Use a multi-dimensional software tool which lets you look at each dimension, and adds everything up for you automatically

Which will you choose?

If you would like to discuss your options in more detail do contact me by email or ring me on 01628 632914.

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