Everything in the business world is changing quickly and if you do not constantly review you may get left behind or not be making the most of your investment.  Obviously fixing the things that don’t work is a priority but there is always value in improving those things which are already working, making them slicker, easier, more intuitive and ultimately more cost effective, but make sure any changes are aligned with where you want the business to go.

You are busy running your business, so how can you keep on top of that review? Here a 5 ideas.

1. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs: Follow people in your industry, follow your suppliers, not just your product suppliers but also your technology and service suppliers. What you are looking for is the golden nugget of information that says a supplier has a new service or Tips and Tricks for using the systems you use.

Pros: Can be reviewed at your leisure
Cons: Sorting the wheat from the chaff

2. Interact with your customers: Make sure you have an effective channel to your customers, currently this may be one way, i.e your marketing, make it two way and listen to what your clients are saying.  They may have issues, some may even have ideas.

Pros: They are your life blood who better to listen too for improvements
Cons: Can be subjective not objective

3. Back to the floor: It may have been some time since you took a customer order or worked with a supplier as you have staff to do that, once in a while do their job. What better way is there of finding improvements to your systems and processes.  May be take this a step further and have rotating jobs so that different people end up working in different areas of the business, but gather feedback, this also has the added benefit of reducing the bottlenecks caused by ‘specialist’ people being on holiday/off sick.

Pros: Kill two birds with one stone, i.e perform holiday or sickness cover
Cons: You hired someone to do the job because you didn’t want too!!

4. Open door policy: As your business gets bigger make sure you are available to your staff, listen to what they have to offer.
Pros: Builds rapport and trust with your employees
Cons: Be careful about in action on suggestions bought to you.

5. Surround yourself by partners: Partners, such as Relativity who are separate to the business yet understand it and who are able to be objective with a separate pair of eyes, and don’t be afraid to talk to them, I can’t speak for partners you may already have but we are more than happy to chew the fat if you are buying the coffee

Pros: A lot of value and expertise for what could be very little if any investment
Cons: There aren’t any, I would say that wouldn’t I.

Here are some examples I have come across recently

• New PC purchase with Office 2010 pre-installed not knowing that Office 2010 is significantly different to 2000 which they were previously working on. This lead to further unbudgeted expense on training and a frustrated workforce.
• Purchase of iPads for a select management team, unaware that their email systems were not setup to take best advantage of the hardware.
• Planned implementation of a CRM system missing the core requirements of the required system.

In two of these examples I was too late to help, the purchase had been made and I was left to pick up the pieces, the third, to be fair to the client, were inheriting systems and a way of working from a sister company, however it was clear that what they were implementing was not going to give them the results they needed.

So what should you do to make sure you invest correctly, get a trusted partner who you can ask and bounce questions off before you make the purchase. Open up to the partner, this is why they need to be trusted, so that they know where you and your business are going. In addition here are some self help things you can do.

• Ask questions of your staff: what works what doesn’t, fix the broken things leave the rest unless they are preventing you from your end goal.
• Ask questions of your current system:  You may find you have everything you need to implement a solution it justs need configuring.
• Integrate: Most time and effort is lost in the bit between systems, if you  can integrate the system and take out the human element you will most definitely educe error and increase effectiveness.
• Be clear: Make sure you are clear what you want and where you are going, it is your prerogative as a boss to move the goal posts but move them in the right direction and don’t be surprised if it costs more.  Business that are jumping from solution to solution are going nowhere, it’s because they were not clear with their end goal in the first place.
• Research, Research, Research:  I spend a lot of the day pouring through news, twitter feeds and social networks looking for information to help us help our clients.  Find a number of websites that are a source of information, don’t necessarily rely on one website. Ask questions on forums,  specialised groups perhaps even people in the same industry as you to find best practices.
• Reference: If your solution involves a third party supplier shortlist take a reference and research them.
• Prototype/Beta test: If you can start small, beta test/pilot it with a few objective staff. Perhaps run more than one pilot with different solutions to see what works the best and is most cost effective.
• Hold back some of the Invoice: I have no issue with this, I expect my clients to hold back some of the payment until they are 100% happy. However be fair, the supplier will have had expenses and may have even supplied you with hardware that needs to be covered.
• Review: Once the solution is implemented review it, this does not need to be formal just make note, is it working, has it fixed the issue, does it get you closer to your goal.
• Don’t be Afraid: Unless you take the first step you can’t get to your goal

Two thirds of phones are lost between 9pm and 2 am, not sure thats much of a surprise.  I have heard to many stories of ‘good’ nights ending with a fuzzy head and a lost phone. This is further ratified  by the fact that the Mancunian’s are the worst at looking after their phones, and no amount of Rice (see later) would help the four people who loose their phones at Niagara every day.

Joking aside, there is a serious matter going on here as most phones are no longer just a dumb communication device they are serious business tools, there may be things you can do to mitigate the issue of losing a phone but you need to consider the issues first.

• Handset cost: Your phones may have cost you very little when you took out your contract, but if you loose your phone mid contract it could easily cost you over £300 to renew.  You may think it is covered by your insurance but I would not make that assumption, check the small print and if you are un happy perhaps look at some of thee specialised insurances that are now available or offered through your phone company.
• Its Contents, could you live without it: Your phone now contains a lot more than just a list of numbers, take my phone for instance, it has all my contacts, email, documents, literature, music, photos, movies and apps.  Thank fully all my data is in constant sync with Google (Contacts, Emails, Photos, Apps and some Documents), Dropbox (Documents), Amazon (Literature), My desktop Mac (Music and Movies). So at worst it is the inconvenience of losing a phone as all my data is safely tucked away somewhere. I expect most of you are already doing this Sync/Backup just through the type of phone you have, but you may just want to check your settings to make sure things are happening as you would expect.  Try accessing your data from another device to confirm the data is syncing/backing up.
• Its Contents, is it safe:  Should you be worried about security?  This is really a case of where the phone ends up, my phone is certainly not an under wraps R&D device so I am not worried about losing the actual device unlike a poor Apple employee who lost a pre-release iphone 4, nor do I think that the data on it could be monetised by the lucky finder but that is my phone, even so I still have a password on my phone, yes its sometimes annoying to have to go through that initial process but in the end better safe than sorry.
• The Apps, are they safe: Your phone is probably a gateway to both your business and personal life that you live out on the web through the various apps on your phone, in most cases to make it easier for you the apps don’t request you to enter a password again, ask infrequently or are constantly running in the background making sure you get updates.  This means that anyone with your phone has possible access to, not just your on phone data, but also your LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, blogs, forums etc.  and of course they are not just receiving data as you they are able to send it as well.  Being realistic the phone again has to hit the wrong hands for this to be an issue but  again better safe than sorry password protect your phone.

So what should you do if you lose your phone

• Ring it, you may find it down the back of a sofa or a good samaritan has picked it up and will happily return it.
• Text it, being in a variable coverage area I often find my phone will connect intermittently enough to receive an SMS but not a call.
• The Apple iPhone has a ‘Find My iPhone’ service that once you log onto via the icloud.com website will allow you to track your iPhone and make it ring.  The beauty of this service is that the Phone just needs to be connected to the internet either by Mobile or Wifi.  Android based phones do not have such a comprehensive Find Me system built in but there are plenty available through the market place.  In addition Googles Latitude service will locate your phone to an area so you can at least see if you have left it somewhere specific.
• Re trace your steps.
• If none of that works and you fear your phone has been taken then call your mobile phone operator and have the phone blocked ASAP.
• If you are going to try and claim on your insurance you may need a police incident number, so register the loss with the police.

What can you do to improve your chances of getting it back or dealing with the issue in the best way possible.

• Make sure your phone has a password, if you are in charge of a business phone then you may be able to centrally manage your phones making a password a prerequisite to logging into your email and systems. Making the phone part of your system also means you have more control over the data allowing you to block access and perform remote wipes.
• On Android install a piece of tracking software, on your iPhone make sure it is working with ‘Find My Phone’.
• If you can, show another contact number on your lock screen so that if your phone is picked up by a good samaritan they have a contact point.
• Contrary to what you may think don’t show your address on the phone and do not have home as a favourite in your GPS.  If your phone gets into the wrong hands it could lead that person straight to your door.  This was an old trick car thieves would do when they stole a car, they would follow the GPS home knowing that you were not in!

What about mishaps!!

• Broken screens: Most screens can be replaced, even the difficult ones such as iPhones. There are a lot of how too’s on the web.
• When you upgrade keep your old phone handy, as most of your accounts should already exist on the old phone it should just be a case of charging up and letting it sync.
• Rice!!! A wet phone may be bought back to life if its put in a bowl of rice, the rice will draw the moisture out of the electrics.

I have never lost a phone, but at the same time I am touching wood just in case.  Be Safe

What are Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of text that can be left on your PC when you visit a website, these pieces of text can hold any number of pieces of information, including your preferences for the site and also tracking information.

Why could so many sites be illegal
A lot of websites (including us) use the Google Analytics system to track users, this comprehensive system gives vital statistics about a websites vistors, this information is collected anonymously but allows the website authors to improve the content and services a website offers.  For instance, Google Analytics will track what type of browser is being used, what colours and screen depth.  This allows the designers to make sites look pretty and functional depending on what devices and OS’s are being used to access the site.  Even though Google Analytics is a third party tool as it is our website that it is working on the directive says that we are responsible for the Cookies and therefore we must get permission.

What will happen if I do not comply
As with a lot of new laws this type of thing has a lot of grey areas, as two examples, can they really force the issue with third party tools, and users have always been able to prevent cookies by browser settings so why do we need to ask.  This leads me to think, but you need to make your own judgment, that I doubt the ICO will go out of its way to start prosecuting and will wait for complaints, then those complaints will have to go to court to see if they are legal, none of this will happen overnight.

What can I do if I am concerned
You could investigate it further (see Google search link below), there is a lot of  discussion on the web but the simple answer is obey, if you use Google Analytics or any other type of Cookie creation then ask the question of your web developer, we use WordPress for our site authoring and within 5 minutes of looking we had a free plugin installed and asking the question.

Even if you are not concerned it does show that you want customer interaction and are concerned about your site visitors privacy, so if its cheap to implement why not.

For more information 
The ICO

Google Websearch

Word Press Plugins

First things first, if I am capturing this data what am I doing with it, as Business  Technology Specialists we evangelise the cloud, so it is little surprise that we run a cloud based CRM, our product of choice is Zoho CRM, this does not mean its our clients product of choice but it fits us nicely, some clients do not want a Cloud based systems, some need simplicity and others are limited by supplier. There are so many choices of CRM it would be impossible to list them all but here are a few of the options we have worked with:-

• Zoho: Cloud based
• Sage: Cloud and Onsite
• Microsoft: Cloud and Onsite
• SugarCRM: Cloud and Onsite
• SplendidCRM:: Cloud and Onsite
• Capsule: Cloud Based
• Insightly: Cloud Based
• Call Pro: Cloud based
• Salesforce: Cloud Based
• Netsuite: Cloud Based

So, I have somewhere to hold the data but what data do I store, this is often a tough decision, it needs to be comprehensive but not too much it becomes a burden to load.  Rule of thumb is to store anything and everything that identifies your Clients/Suppliers and  anything you may want to use in analytics.  Ignoring the defacto data such a contacts names, numbers and addresses here are some samples of extra data.

• Industry
• Place met/Campaign that produced client
• Location (County)
• Size (£ and employees)
• Your industry specifics (if your an Accountant then perhaps if they are VAT registered or are Exporters)
• Type of Contact

There is also now a new(ish) term on the block SocialCRM this is where we bring Social feeds directly in and out of the CRM system.  Salesforce does this extremely well but the other suppliers are improving, Zoho links into LinkedIn and Facebook, the latter is a new update  and I am unsure of its suitability in a B2B scenario, but LinkedIn works really well.

What should you look for in a CRM

• Decide if you want your data in the cloud or local
• Delivery, what will you access the system on, PC’s Mac’s, iOS, Android
• Do you need the full Sales Lifecycle (Campaigns, Leads, Accounts, Potentials, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Suppliers, Product) or a subset
• Integration, what does it need to work with.
• Who will be using it, some systems are better suited to administrators others sales people.
• How many users and security between users
• Do you need to extend it above and beyond customisation
• What analytics do you need to produce
• What fits best into your business process i.e. Accounting, Email etc.

What benefits do I get from my CRM

• Targeted campaigns
• History of relationships
• Research
• Consistency in correspondence
• Analytics, what works what doesn’t
• Speed and accuracy

CRM is a tool that no business should be without, but it should be a system that works they way you work, give you the information you need and at a price that is cost effective.

A lot of people are against the increased use of technology in school and from a distance I can see their point of view, however when you consider some of our dearest will be performing jobs which have not been invented yet and that they will certainly be using technology that has not even hit the R& D labs at the likes of big players such as Google, they need to grow up with emerging technology.

Perhaps the schools around the South East are isolated but I have walked into them as a Parent and a Governor and seen amazing use of technology, Smart White boards are everywhere, computers in every room, if not on every desk, video equipment for media production, tablets etc, and its not just the hardware, here in East Sussex they use a Cloud based systems for home/school learning, this means we as parents can see what work they are producing and the feedback they are getting from the teachers all in an adhoc manner. This does not weaken the parental link with school it strengthens it.

This is what can be seen at a normal Primary School, then you have the specialized centers, recently I had a chance to go with the local Chamber of Commerce (@CrowboroChamber) to the new Creative Learning Centre at Beacon Community College in Crowborough a £3.5 million investment, an amazing learning resource using emerging technology such as 3D cinema, rooms capable of projecting video on to every wall and systems that track body movements , a fully immersive learning resource.

Looking at the kids using this centre and other technology, you can just see them engaging in education because this is the same sort of technology they are using at home to play games and socialise. But when they go out into the wide world of work this emerging technology disappears and they are left with old PC’s and obsolete software to do their job, not very inspiring is it.  I don’t blame the SME’s, as the Director of an SME myself I understand cost is an issue, you have to make tough decisions on technology ‘if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it’ comes to mind and this puts technology to the bottom of the funding list. But we should be giving technology an increased position within business, new technology can, if managed in the right way, lead to a number of advantages including increased markets, reduced overheads, agility in change and if it engages your staff and makes you a better employer even better. So what as an SME should you consider:-

1. Cloud, Yes, I know this is getting boring and tedious, you can’t go to a seminar or event without it coming up but it is a place where SME’s can see cost savings, improve client and supplier servicing and agility in changes to name just 3 benefits.
2. Mobility, if your staff are on the move regularly make sure they are able to work wherever they are, this reduces cost and improves your ability to respond.
3. Hot desking, an old term but would it not be good to allow your staff to work from home if they could not make it in. Again improves the businesses ability to respond at the same time improves the morale of staff.
4. Social Marketing, This not only has the ability to increase your sales but also manage your existing clients and their expectations.
5. System Integration: Look to get rid of repetitive jobs of moving data from one system to another, this type of function is error pone and boring, its not good for business or the staff.
6. New PC’s / Hardware, how much time do you waste waiting for your PC to respond, consider new hardware to improve your response time and the ability to take advantage of newer software and ways of working.
7. Collaboration, use systems which improve collaboration and sharing of work tasks and projects.

These are just a few of the things I am discussing and helping to implement with my clients, get the strategy right and it should make you money, not waste it.

Brand Recognition
I use a Google Android tablet but most comments from non gadget people is ‘Oh Cool an iPad’.  Much like the Hoover brand of the early 1900’s which became synonymous for the vacuum cleaner the iPad is now synonymous with tablet devices. Soo much the ‘Legals’ are starting to gather as Forbes discusses.

In addition, come launch day the general press are all of a flutter with the new iPad from Apple, you don’t see that when Samsung launch their new Note or Mototrola their new Xoom Tablets.

This virality and brand recognition will lead to more iPads being purchased to get a tablet! Its not a bad thing, just the way marketing works.

BYOD
When I walk through any public waiting space (train stations and airports) the device of choice for consuming media is the iPad, the majority of these people are on the way to or from work. Whilst I expect most of these iPads are personally owned the culture in many businesses with these new devices is we won’t invest but feel free to Bring Your Own Devices and use them.

Taking into account these two reasons its hard to see how Apple will fail making the iPad the final winner.  It has the volume and are being used for work whether the business likes it or not.

Does Google care?   Google, until they purchased Motorola, was not really in the hardware business, yes they had dabbled but that was just to give hardware suppliers something to aspire to in terms of quality and I expect that’s what they are doing again with the rumored Google Tablet.

In the end Google’s offering is more to do with their Google Apps for Business, not the operating system (Android) or the hardware, they have a well rounded product offering email on your own domain, document sharing, voice communication, social integration and a multitude of 3rd party Apps available to bolt onto their core services, even better is that most Google Apps can be delivered via the browser meaning Google doesn’t care what the hardware or operating system is, now or in the future as long as it has an Internet connection and a good browser.

Apple has iCloud, it offers the same sort of services as Google but currently only at a personal level it has no formal business type collaboration, sharing, communication or easy central administration. These issues need to be dealt with for iCloud to be fully embraced by the business community.

However, Apple know this and I am sure it’s been their plan all along, no full frontal attack on business, lets face it the doors of IT have long been guarded by the likes of MS and UNIX a tough door to get through, but if you let the masses take the basic product into business it becomes like the horse in the Trojan Wars an attack from within.

iCloud now seems to be their push, it featured on the packaging of the ‘New iPad’ and the new version of iTunes is rumored to further integrate iCloud.

So will the iPad win the Business tablet War, it has already and I think it will continue to do so even with reinforcements from the Android hardware brigade.  Does this give Apple access to the deliver the business services on the hardware, they’ve not won the war but they certainly have a good point man.

Functionality:  The systems I look have an interface that is designed for ease of use ideally suited to the SME’s market but the infrastructure behind them is Enterprise level. This allows the SME user to make use of functionality that was once only available to large corporations, functionality such as Collaboration and Mobility whilst keeping the implementation simple and intuitive.

Scalability: Over the years I have worked with a number of businesses that just kept growing and out paced their systems and infrastructure.  In one case this meant a re-write of key piece of CRM software, why would you not want a system that grows with you as you grow (or shrinks as you down size!!) and adds functionality as technology allows for it.  This keeps your costs as a function of you headcount, something you can plan to and at the same time keeps you ahead of the pack with technology.

Training and Support:  Yes we deliver training for our clients but in many cases they can do their own self-service training for free with us just covering the Gaps or industry specifics.

Compatibility and Mobility: I want systems that just work, not systems that need a specific level of hardware, working where and when I want on the devices that work for me.

Security and Redundancy:  Do you need high level security and system redundancy suitable for banks for your work, probably not but why not use it if you can, a 99.9% uptime sounds great to me.

So there are just some of the benefits of using cloud based systems but what are the downsides, these are the ones people often use, wrongly.

Cost:   After x years I could have bought the system, in most cases this is just simply not true when you take everything into account, however assuming it is, yes you could have bought the system that is on offer now, but you couldn’t have also bought the system you are using in x years time.  The PAYG offering means you get all updates to functionality as part of the monthly cost.

Internet Connection: Yes, this has been difficult over the past few years but connection to the web is much more prolific than it used to be, in addition changes in technology now means a lot of systems can allow you to be disconnected with changes synchronized next time you make an internet connection.

Security of My Data: Make the right choice and your data is more secure than you could ever have it, but if you have to have local copies then most cloud system offer some form of backup.

Business users looking at tomorrow will never see a benefit to cloud systems, for those looking to the future I can see no better way for a business to grow and to keep ahead of the competition.

A lot of the work I perform is helping clients build on their Business Plans and Strategy and it is always a point of discussion, where is your business going, what does it look like in 5 years time.

Whilst predictions like this are interesting (and sometimes amusing) they are specific to industries which may not affect you, so here are my predictions which will affect most businesses. Some are a lot closer than 2020

• Connectivity: People of all demographics will become every increasingly connected to the web and at greater speeds. This will allow you to deliver better quality services via the web. It will also mean you will need to connect with these people through a wide range of methods, are you thinking about Email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and more recently for  Product/Design based companies Pintrest?
• Social Groups will get more and more power: People will be able to organise their own buying power/service negotiation.  Are you monitoring what people are saying about your services, could you lock groups in by offering a better service/cost.
• Targeted Ads Online and Off:   With Facebook you can already show your ads to people of a specific Gender, Age Groups, Location and Interests, this is more than Google currently does in its targeting!! With NFC type functionality now coming to phones  and all the social data that is available about you it will not be long before targeting is done offline where we have Minority Report type adverts appearing as we walk around shops and towns suggesting products/services specifically for you.  There are already bus stop ads on trial that target Men and Women differently based on image recognition.
• Your market will go truly global: This has been possible for Service companies for a while now but as connectivity  and technology improves it will become more of the norm and those in production etc will be able to outsource the production to remote areas much more easily, so supplying products to clients in Australia will become a case of local production no import/export.
• More and more roles will be outsourced in the coming years meaning your ‘staff’ will be working for more businesses than just yours.   As a small business owner that makes sense, I do not want, nor can I afford to hold highly skilled staff all of the time, I work with a number of skilled people utilising their expertise when required. This is not just a financial thing, it gives me fleetness of foot and also flexibility in how the business is run.

What do you think?  Have you a handle on what you, your business you client and suppliers will look like in a few years time?

Now whilst this issues cause frustration for my Wife they must also be causing problems at the company end and with problems come loss of profit.  Unfortunately its not unusual for me to come across these sorts of issues with my clients, here are a few things you should consider as your company grows and as you, an owner/manager move further away from the ‘shop’ floor.

• Listen to your staff, have an effective process to allow staff to comment on issues they are having. They are the ones doing the job listen to them.
• Listen to you clients, have an effective process to allow clients to comment on issues they are having. The cost of loosing a client is too much for them to be ignored.
• Listen to your suppliers, now you may have enough kudos so that suppliers will put up with inefficient processes, but those processes will be costing you money as well.
• Make sure your IT systems are aligned to your Business Process. Don’t loose time, money and customers because you work one way and your systems another.
• Question but don’t prowl, one client I have worked with in the past takes time to visit his offices and wander around looking at paperwork and systems questioning what he finds.  But beware there is a fine balance between this and seeming to be watching and ultimately not trusting the staff. So make sure its seen as a positive thing.
• Don’t take no for an answer if someone says its difficult or impossible to do, improving systems and process in these situations will be a balance of three things time, money and functionality.  Until you know all three you cannot make a decision, nothing is impossible it may just take a lot of time or money making it not cost effective.

This is just a short list of things to consider when thinking about the little things, but as the saying goes, look after the pennies and the pounds will look after them selves.