Here is the list of things to do in February that might help!

1. Read this very useful document from Shirlaws coaching on Surviving and Thriving the recession. It has some great ideas to help you through the biting economy! If you may also want to read this very helpful e-book as well if you are looking for More Money, More Time and Less Stress.
2. Review your marketing  – we  have spent the last few weeks reviewing what we have done over the last year and the impact to see what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t measure and review regularly then you could be wasting time, money and effort on activities that don’t work.
3. Get social – It works honestly! Despite the title of the blog post Charlie has recently written inferring Social Media doesn’t Work. We have found that it is an important part of the marketing mix to help enhance the Ayrmer Software brand.
4. Give out testimonials to businesses you work with whether they are clients or suppliers. It may sound tacky but “spread the love and they will love you back”.  Testimonials reinforce your reputation as a good person to do business with.
   If you think we’ve done a good job for you please feel free to put a recommendation on our LinkedIn company page or Like our Facebook page or follow our tweets on Twitter!
   If you are really happy with the service someone has provided then send them a thank you or even a gift! (Not that we are looking for gifts! We had a very nice testimonial from one of our clients Fish Kids before Christmas – a perfect gift!).
   On a personal note don’t forget Valentine’s day on 14^th February – if you are stuck for ideas why not get a romantic bottle of bubbly from Best Cellars Wines!
   We do not get commission from Best Cellars for promoting their wares – we just like happy clients and are happy to recommend their services. 
5. If you are unsure about something ask for help. Quite often in business things happen and you need speak to someone about it. This is where in the past many business owners turned to Business Link advisors for some impartial advice. With the demise of the regional Business Link network who can you turn to? This is where your professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors and business coaches can help. Or even talk to friends who are in business also as they may have experienced similar. A problem shared is a problem halved!

We hope you find these tips useful. If you have any of your own we would love to hear them!

Resources

Shirlaws E-Book – “More Money, More Time, Less Stress”

Shirlaws – Survive and Thrive

Background

A few years ago – when Ayrmer Software was in its infancy – I attended a network event and asked someone what the difference was between sales and marketing; it was an open question on a table of around 8 people from a variety of sectors and I got an interesting definition.

Ask yourself how many businesses could use your service and then ask yourself how many of these businesses know of you. The answer – unless you are a global brand or in a niche sector – is going to be 0.000001 % (or something similar).  Marketing is increasing the 0.000001 % to something greater. Sales is a consequence of marketing and is about closing the deal.

No doubt the person that provided this definition was in marketing, but it stuck and seemed to be a really good way of explaining the difference between two disciplines so often perceived as one persons responsibility (certainly within the SME environment).

Marketing has gone through a revolution recently with the wide spread use of the internet, enabling businesses to increase exposure to potential clients via search engines and an entire new industry – Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – has been created in its wake. And just when everyone thought they were getting to grips with the internet social media came along and exploded onto the scene.

New challenges

Online marketing – especially social media – is still in the very early stages of development and as such there are few rules, little experience or indeed expertise in how to harness a tool within the marketeers box of tricks.  For many marketing directors the entire concept is repulsive and some businesses have alienated themselves from a potentially huge opportunity. However others have approached this new phenomenon with open minds!

Changing environment

Up until the latter part of 2008 we had used business networks as a primary marketing tool and it had paid dividends time and time again.  However, following the collapse of the banking system, businesses seized up and people sat on any cash they had within their businesses as they weathered the storm.

We saw the effectiveness of business networks falter as people hid behind the parapet and focused on survival.  Ironically, this is when people should have utilised their networks, but for some reason appeared (in my experience) not to.

There were some sound reasons behind the turn to online networking – not least to reduce the cost / time invested in business networking – and keep in touch with the contacts we had established over 4 / 5 years of offline networking.  As a business we had already dipped our toe into online networking via LinkedIn and Ecademy, so it wasn’t a giant leap forward for us to switch our focus to online rather than offline networking.

Plan of action

We initially changed the focus of online networking, focusing on linkedin and whilst dropping ecademy.  The first step was to ensure we connected with as many people we had already met via LinkedIn – using their import contacts – and making sure our profiles were up to date and monitoring any activity.  We also focused on LinkedIn Answers that enables business people to post questions and submit responses within reasonable well defined areas (see previous article How to get the most out of Linkedin – get engaged).

In December 2008 a marketeer asked us to develop a tool that could be plugged into any website that allowed users to post a tweet on the host website, utilising the Twitter application platform interface (API), which drew our attention to Twitter as a social media platform and I later created an account in November 2009.

I cannot say I was overly enamoured about the prospect of tweeting, after all David Cameron famously said “too many tweets make a tw*t” and for many of us this was another example of instant gratification and self promotion so pervasive within our society today.

So, with some guidance from colleagues we embarked on working out how we could use the myriad of platforms available to support our marketing strategy.  Actually, calling it a marketing strategy is slightly misleading; we are a small business and were trying survive a recession and were using anything we could find to increase our chances.

In all honesty, social media happened and we evolved with it (to some degree) and it was only in the autumn of 2010 that we really focused our effects in any sort of constructive manner. Did it start out as an experiment, no, but it has become one for our clients as more and more have asked about social media and in turn asked “does it work“?

Vince McConville joined the team at the beginning of 2011 and bought with him a wealth of knowledge and experience about online marketing (including social media) and had presented a number of seminars for Business Link SW about the subject.  He reviewed what we had do to date and then looked at how we could push forward our online activities.

• We created a Facebook page last summer (2011)
• Leveraged our LinkedIn company profile and individual profiles
• Published regular articles on our blog
• Published regular news articles and press releases on our website
• Used Twitter to distribute content and draw website visitors on to our website
• Engaged with people via social media platforms

The object was simple, increase awareness of our brand and services that would result in an increase of good quality leads and other opportunities.

Measure, measure, measure

We would also recommend that you measuring the effectiveness of any business activity, but especially within a marketing environment, as this allows you to determine which channels are the most effective.

A few months ago I was talking to a client how said they were thinking of scrapping advertising in a sector specific publication, because the asked people to quote a reference and used a separate telephone number and email address and had come to the conclusion that it had not yielded any return on their investment.  I argued against this as I suggested that the constant unconscious peppering of their brand meant that when a potential client came across their brand there would be a subconscious recognition of the business that would create an initial level of trust.

This kind of measurement is extremely difficult to measure, but is equally important.  We can ask clients new clients where they found out about the business, but rarely get a concise answer.  When clients provide us with details and / or we can work out where they came from – using tools like Google Analytics – we can capture the source, but all too often this is a holy grail.

There are measurements that you can record, that would indicate if specific objectives are achieved, but you have to ask yourself if these lead to meeting the businesses primary objectives.

1. Number of connections made (LinkedIn)
2. Number of followers (Twitter)
3. Number of likes (Facebook)
4. Number of engagement – conversations, etc., – between you and the connections, followers or fans.
5. Number of click throughs (bit.ly and other URL services)
6. Number of click throughs to either your website and / or blog
7. Number of posts (blog)

It is worth monitoring some of the above, as they are early indicators as to the effectiveness of your campaign but need to be seen within the context of the bigger picture.

So does social media work?

Remember our initial objective – increase awareness of our brand and services that would result in an increase of good quality leads – and then work out how to best evaluate the success / failure of our online marketing.

There are two ways of approaching this question: -

1. The number of leads directly related to a specific stream, e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, articles, etc.,
2. The more holistic approach that measures the entire online marketing strategy.

If we use the first approach one could reasonable argue that social media does not work as only a small percentage  of leads can be directly attributed to a specific social media platform or activity.  However, when you use the second approach the business has seen a 100% increase in visitors and a 276% increase in projects that have resulted as a direct result of our online marketing, so one could conclude social media works.

We have worked with a number of clients over the last twelve months using a variety of different approaches that include: -

1. Integrated social media feeds and platforms into their websites.
2. Integrated blogging platforms into websites.
3. Ensured websites are properly optimised and utilise sitemaps to ensure search engines read pages deep within their websites.
4. Creation of mobile e-commerce website that compliments the standard website.

Using a variety of approaches like this has enabled us to out perform their previous online marketing significantly in every case. However the issue of effectively measuring this still exists and is still difficult to quantify.

We analysed one website and  could see that although the number of orders had increased, the average order value had dropped by around 9% (slightly disappointing but inline within the specific sector).  If average order values had remained consistent they would have seen a 13% increase in what is essentially a bull market.  Another client saw an increase of 35% in traffic that resulted in 23% increase in sales within a month, but that wasn’t solely down to aspects we have discussed in this article.

Other clients have seen significant increases for lead generation.  In fact, I am often envious of one of our clients that has seen a 100% increase in lead generation and has said that the leads are of a better quality than before we took over their website!

Conclusion

Social media is a new tool that provides businesses with new ways of achieving brand awareness to a far greater number of people than before and although it is still difficult to attribute the success of any online marketing campaign, without it you are attempting to climb Mount Everest without clampons!

Businesses will use social media in different ways – depending on their sector and / or target audience – and for some businesses it is an accepted tool, but for many others it feels alien and business owners are struggling to understand it.  I have heard business owners say “… I don’t see the appeal of living my life in a fish bowl …” or ” … I don’t want staff siting on Facebook all day, they are here to work!” that I fully understand, but to ignore it is a missed opportunity.

So my conclusion – based on our experience and that of our clients – is that social media does work!

If you would like to know more, please contact Vince McConville on 01626 834433.

Resources

Unscrabbling social media is child’s play

How to get the most out of Linkedin – get engaged

Social media – how it all fits together

Social media is just one more tool for your online marketing

The recent article on Mashable on “How to Communicate your Software Needs to a developer” prompted this post. It was in essence, a guide to choosing a website developer NOT a software developer and caused a few people to question authors reasoning.

A lot of the advice in the article related to the front end aka the look and feel (design) as is to be expected on Mashable, given its target audience. Website design not software development. Businesses need to differentiate between this very different skill sets as the process for selecting a developer for back end business systems is slightly different.

Our view on how clients should do their due diligence is not necessarily the right one, but it works for us and our clients. We are not saying that we can do everything or service any client, in fact we know this isn’t the case and know our limitations. This is why, as part of the due diligence process the developer has to be selective in engaging with clients, as taking on the wrong type of client can be detrimental to both parties!

We focus on working with SME’s, these are our core market and we believe we understand them because we are one as well. This is important because we understand the business issues that our clients face. Our business model is bespoke business software and therefore a good understanding of  a clients business is vital to enable us to build an appropriate solution. It can also be argued that businesses of a similar size will communicate and behavour in similar ways and therefore should be a good match.

Following this reasoning, if a client who was looking came to us to develop a high end business to consumer (B2C) solution we would not be appropriate as we are not the right fit for them.  This isn’t always the case, but certainly where the focus is on creating a highly visual solution, historically we would struggle to deliver in some cases.

We were recently talking to a client and it emerged that they are looking at a new business system to help manage their growth. They are investigating various options including Off the Shelf (OTS) software solutions designed for their vertical market. Their reasoning for this is they don’t know if they are working in the right way and they thought a vertical OTS products would provide them with answers to questions they didn’t know to ask.

This sort of makes sense. We have had other clients that have gone down the Off the Shelf route for that reason, but with mixed results. Generally the OTS product has fulfilled some, but not all of their requirements and there is  a lot of functionality they have never used.

If they had gone down the bespoke solution route would they have fared any better? They might have if the company understood the business enough and asked the right questions of the client. There is the risk that they may have faced – the right questions may not have been asked and they wouldn’t have known because they themselves didn’t know the questions to ask. A bit like Donald Rumsfeld – - you don’t know what you don’t know – confusing!

Asking the right questions can help you get the right results

The questions the client should be asking themselves are:

• Do we know what our business needs in order to be able to choose the right solution?
• If not can we find the the right person to ask those questions?
• Does the software developer understand our business? Do they have a process that will enable them to find out?
• Do they undertake a full requirements capture that challenges our needs / wants?
• Do we go down the Off the Shelf route, opt for a turn-key solution or go for a bespoke solution?
• Can we work within the developers business model (see this post).
• Will the end product give us the functionality we require to solve the key business issues?
• Can we live with 70-80% of the functionality we require if we utilise an OTS solution. Is the missing 20-30 % going to impact on the effective operation of the business?

Whilst this not a definitive list of questions (and there will never be one) these will certainly help you start to think about your requirements and guide your search.

Resources:

Ayrmer Blog – Software Architects 

ICT Business Models

Original Mashable Article

32 Questions a software developer may have forgotton to ask a start-up

Intuition is the sum of your experience.

Intuition is not the same for everyone, this is because intuition is born out of experience and not everybody has the same knowledge or experience.

For example recently we purchased an iPad for testing purposes at work. I struggled to use it as first because I have been conditioned over the years to use PCs.  My experience and intuition was pushing me to try to use the iPad in ways that wouldn’t work. It was very frustrating to say the least especially as all the branding primes you to expect an intuitive experience. My son (7) on the other hand has not been preconditioned in his use of technology and took to the iPad very easily. It is an age and experience thing, one which App developers are tapping into with some very intuitive Apps. The Telegraph recently their top 10 iOS apps for kids.

In the end I resorted to having to look up the instructions and re-training myself to use the iPad. Something I considered surprising as I think myself  good with software and work for a company that designs intuitive software.

Training & Intuition

Clients often say to us that they shouldn’t  need training on our systems as they are supposed to be intuitive.  In most cases this is correct as we try to build systems based around a users business processes. However if what we are replacing are spreadsheets then a clients intuition is based on using them. What we design is meant to be more effective therefore will inherently be different. Therefore intuition based on their spreadsheet use won’t work and some training is required to re-balance the experience.

The implementation of a new software system often takes place as part of major changes with in a company and so users experiences will be undergoing a major transformation which is why such change management needs to be controlled properly and the appropriate resources / training put in place

There has got to be rules!

In the development of any software system there has got to be rules, rules help form experience and therefore intuition. When developing ecommerce system you follow the rules of best practice that have been tried and tested over the years. You do not try to reinvent the wheel or create a radically different experience as this can cause the user to get lost and lose trust in the shop.

Even in open source software development, often seen as free and open, there are rules to maintain the integrity of the various development projects.

Using spreadsheets as a business tool can be dangerous as there are no rules. The user is free to make them up as they go along. Whilst this may appeal to some, it plays havoc with things like data validation. It also skews a users experience and therefore intuition so when they reach the limitation of what the spreadsheets can do for their business and decide to invest in proper business systems  they are faced with a dilemma - rules or no rules!

Proper business systems use rules for validation and to create order. This makes the business data more valuable and usable. The user however may feel constrained as they now do not have the flexibility they previously enjoyed. This is where training is vital to help the user learn their new experience.

Target the design to the audience.

One way to help ensure that software is intuitive for the user is to target the design to the audience.

My experience as PC user meant that I didn’t feel the iPad was intuitive and I had to re-establish my intuition through training and experience. I still struggle in parts with using the iPad but that is because it isn’t designed for people like me who like to delve into the workings of things.

The younger generation on the whole will find way round the iPad (and the internet) as it natural rather than a 40 yr old who have had to learn it and break preconceptions and habits.

Conclusion

I definitely think that intuition is the sum of all our experiences. In software I like to think I am very experienced and therefore find things naturally intuitive but as my recent experience with the iPad shows, my intuition is always developing and even I need training. I am not alone in this.

There  has been a lot of outrage in the news recently over various events whether it be Jeremy Clarkson’s rant about strikers on the ONE show or the recent outcry regarding comments on the Wright Stuff. The internet and especially Social Media has been used to highlight peoples’ outrage or otherwise. We have become a nation of armchair critics and it is affecting business. So can we protect ourselves both in our business and personal lives from attacks on our reputation.

As businesses and individuals we are all exposed to the constant barrage of information floating around the web. People are talking about us whether we know it or not and what they are discussing can potentially harm our reputation. Often the on-line critics have never experienced the product /  service /  event they are commenting on or being outraged about.

This is especially so in the tourism market where sites like Trip Advisor have been both a benefit and a bane for the businesses. The unmoderated comments / reviews on sites like this have attracted the attention of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) who have been called upon to investigate.

Channel 4 recently aired a documentary regarding some of the more prolific real reviewers and the businesses struggling to cope with the stress of the negative nit-picking reviews.

The explosion of fake reviews are eroding trust in the internet as a source of recommendations on products and services as users. Often the reviews are created in their thousands by firms looking to skew results in their favour.

Who can you trust? We have just decided not to buy an item on Ebay from a seller with a 50% rating. Could we have trusted them to deliver or were we swayed by the masses?

Indeed allot of people using the internet are swayed by the masses every day, whether it be product reviews on sites or by outraged individuals posting on Social Media sites whose indignation goes viral.

Such as in the case of Clarkson (most people didn’t actually see the original ONE show as most people don’t actually watch it). Similarly the furore over the Jonathan Ross / Russell Brand Sachsgate a couple of years ago was fueled by the masses, most of whom never heard the original show.

We have become a nation of sheep! Following the flock.

So as a business how can you weather the storm.

1. Well in the first instance its always a good idea not to be an “Eejit” in the first place and don’t make any gaffs. This can be hard to do, but not hiring an inexperienced Marketing Executive to be in charge of social media campaigns can help. See Habitat, Quantas.
2. If you do do something wrong, it is best to measure your reaction / response so it doesn’t exacerbate the original issue. Matthew Wrights response in telling people to “Grow Up!” is not not necessarily very helpful.
3. If you are in the right, defend yourself! Recently, actress Jo Page was castigated on Twitter for doing a voice over on a programme that offended a Twitter user. She hit right back on the network, as it was actually another actress that did the voiceover.
4. Jo was supported in her defence by her followers. As  businesses we have followers / customers  / advocates who know and trust us and we should be able to lean upon to defend against unjust / wrong allegations
5. Keep an eye on what is being said about you on-line. Use services like Google Alerts, Social Mention or Twitter Search.
6. Keep calm and factual – don’t get emotional. Don’t get riled up by the trolls.
7. Last resort get you lawyer to fire off a letter. Often this can nip false allegations in the bud.

Conclusion

Giving us a voice through the internet is positive however we seem to be slipping back to the old days where we were told how to think by the controlled media. Now we are being told what to think by following the masses. We need to have a mind of our own. As businesses although we need to be mindful of the ever changing landscapes we need to forge our own way forward. Only last week there are concerns in the media that the audience is directing what we watch. Is this a good thing?

Workshops

One way to approach challenging the client is in an on-site workshop. This sounds like a bunch of people in a room cutting and sticking things together but is actually a very useful exercise. There are a number of advantages to undertaking the workshop on-site.

• The client will be on home territory and therefore should be more comfortable in providing answers to the probing questions.
• It also means that all the stakeholders in the system should be able to get involved thus providing valuable information / feedback but also getting vital buy in to the process rather than feeling that something is being imposed on them; this buy- in is vital to the successful implementation of any project.
• Being on-site also enables you to get a better feel for the business, which will enable you to ask more relevant probing questions.

Petulant child syndrome

During the workshop it is often necessary to look at the business as a whole and learn what the business objectives are for the short, medium and long term. This is where the fun starts, where you need to become a petulant child and constantly ask why?, why?, why?

By doing so, you are getting the client to take a good look at their business to make sure that their outcomes are well defined. What we are also doing whilst being petulant is feeding back to the clients our experience across a multitude of sectors that work and things that don’t work. Clients will find this invaluable as often they don’t get this holistic third party challenging feedback unless they employ a business coach or non-executive director.

Whilst every workshop is different (as is every business) the workshops needs to have some structure and scope, otherwise it would be chaos. Whilst it can be fun, chaos isn’t going to achieve the desired objectives.

Right outcomes

Over the years we have  completed a wide variety of workshops with clients. This approach has enabled them to revisit their business models and what their ultimate objects. It has often meant that what is developed is actually different to what their original requirements where.

We often use analogies that ensure people don’t get alienated by the environment of any discussions.  This allows us to have a far more productive discussion. We often use the analogy of choosing the right vehicle for your business; although you might want an Aston Martin, the business needs a vehicle that is cost effective and has sufficient room to transport equipment.  An estate car would therefore be a better fit for the business.

We recently had a client that said after the workshops were completed that if we had simply developed the solution they initially asked us to develop, it would not have worked and been a waste of time and money.  We often find that clients say this after the event and it is one of the challenges we face to convince them to undertake the workshops.

This fits in well with our business ethos of making the other person more important than you.

Software Solutions = Business Solutions

I was chatting with a client last week explaining the benefits of the workshop and he realised that although we build software solutions we are actually building business solutions therefore if we don’t understand the business we might as well not bother starting. This is why we know it is vital to get under our clients skin as the experience of a workshop brings out all sorts valuable insights for both us and the client.

Valuable for the client in terms of challenging their business and propositions and coming up with new ideas. Valuable for us as we have the right information to build them an effective business solution.

Conclusion

I am always fascinated by different types of businesses and  how people run them. What has become apparent to me from my years as a business advisor and now undertaking the workshops with our clients is that if you don’t have fun in business then why do it. What makes the workshops fun for me is the variety of people I meet and the knowledge that if we can get to the root of their issues and identify their needs, then we can develop a solution that helps them achieve their goals and makes a real difference.

As the old adage goes fail to plan, plan to fail!

A cold hard lesson

There is no simple answer, but as a software developer of too many years to openly admit I think the reliance on someone else code is floored.  I used to use VBX’s – the forerunner to ActiveX components – which were designed to decrease development time and therefore cost back in the nineties.  At first I embraced these as they certainly reduced the amount of source code I had to write – and as most commercial programmers are always under pressure to churn out code – it certainly helped.

One particular ActiveX component I used was for manipulating raster and vector based files.  At the time I was working within the building sector, more specifically within Mechanical & Electrical (M&E) .  We had developed a software solution that managed assets and we wanted to hot spot architectural floor plans  that would enable facility managers to access maintenance records, O&M manuals and alike.  We implemented a user interface that allowed users to import their floor plans and then placed transparent layers over the drawing that contained related information.

The development went well and we shipped out an upgrade to over 200 sites across the UK.  Most clients were working on Windows NT or Novelle and at first everything this fine, but then we started getting memory leaks that caused the software to crash and in the worst cases corrupt the underlying data.

Unlike the early days of VBXs the new generation of ActiveX components didn’t provide you with the underlying source code (uncompiled).  To make matters worse the company was sold to an French business who immediately dropped the project and we had to find a new control and retrofit the new functionality in.

By this time Lead Tools had published an excellent ActiveX component that did exactly what we needed, so all was not lost although my boss at the time didn’t think so!

Modern libraries

Modern libraries like jQuery enable web designers and developers to access technologies available within the environment we work in, but are reliant on source code written by other people.  Scripting languages like PHP can be extended using classes that provide shrink wrapped functionality without the need to have a thorough understand of it.

Some might argue this is a good thing and for some projects it is; we use WordPress for websites where the budget or requirements don’t allow us to build a custom solutions.  In these cases per-built code offers a solution and can enable businesses to access functionality not previously accessible on a low / tight budget.  We’ll also use PHP classes – but only after we have thoroughly tested them – and Java libraries for our Java based web and desktop applications.  But, we have found on a number of occasions, even Java libraries can be scarily lacking in fundamental understanding of the language. We used a Java class to extend the behaviour of a data grid a couple of years ago and ended up rewriting it because the class had been written with a very narrow perspective and could not handle a number of common situations.

At least with scripting languages like PHP, JavaScript and others the source code is accessible, so if you have a thorough understand of the underlying language you should be able to fix any glitches.  But this is where the argument falls down!

A lack of knowledge

A significant number of web designers and developers do not have an in depth knowledge of scripting languages and some some extent I understand the reasons for this.

Small businesses need multi skilled designers and developers that know their way round a number of graphics packages like Illustrator and PhotoShop as well as being proficient at HTML, CSS and JavaScript.  Add on top of that AJAX (a sub set of JavaScript), PHP, MySQL and others and you start to get the picture.

This results in designers and developers using tools that they do not understand, often designers will use JQuery where a small JavaScript file would do the job without carrying a load of excess baggage.  I have seen developers and designers make decisions based on what they can get to work without considering what is the best solution.  Often this is driven by a lack of underlying knowledge, be it Java or any other language.

We hit a problem last week, when our designer created a design that was difficult (if not impossible) to render within the framework been used, in this case WordPress.  She hunted various forums for a solution, before asking me what we should do.  Ironically, I found a solution within a couple of minutes on the WordPress Codex site, that gave an example of how to extend the Widgets class in WordPress.  It took around an hour or so, but because we had the underlying knowledge and understanding we were able to get around the problem relatively quickly.

So, what appeared to be an impossible problem was quickly worked around and we now have a better understanding of the Widgets class and could use this in future projects for a variety of different solutions.

Scrappy source code

Anyone that has worked with me will tell you are get up tight about messy source code.  Well formatted and commented source code makes supporting an application far more cost effective.  It takes a little longer, but will always pay you back handsomely!

I always remember someone saying that programmers never write comments when the source code is particularly difficult as they focus on the problem in front of them.  I disagree and was taught that your start with pseudo code, which allows you to plan how you tackle a problem.  I was writing a fairly complex function this morning and started by subconsciously laying out out the main function (and the associated functions) in pseudo code before  starting any programming  This allows you to break down larger tasks into simple ones!

The problem with libraries is they tend not to output clean code, in fact some the code within classes is truly terrifying and almost impossible to read, especially when developers mix the server scripting language with HTML and CSS!

Conclusion

It’s all about the money and you have to make your choices.  Sometimes using pre-built code will not only produce unexpected results, it can also add costs to a project.  The cheapest option doesn’t always end up being the quickest and most efficient way to get something done.

So before you (web designers and developers) grab the design template, theme or class make sure you understand the risks and / or learn a bit more about the technology you are using.  For clients, you have to decide what your budget is and then make a decision based on the resources available, but as the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for”!

Guy Berruyer (Sage CEO) faced a grilling from the other guests on the programme about this revelation, although one of them was a hedge fund manager, so didn’t really have much of a moral leg to stand on (so to speak)!

It was suggested by the other guests that there was no real incentive for software companies to ensure their solutions were intuitive, if their business model relies on support contracts. It was also suggested that Sage use pain based sales techniques to ensure sufficient businesses sign up to their support contracts.  Businesses are reliant on Sage’s software to meet deadlines set by HMR&C that carry their own penalties, so are prepared to pay – what equates to an insurance policy – for a support agreement.

Sage and other accounting software solutions are in a unique positions, in that a third party hold the metaphorical stick that the business user will be beaten with if they fail to comply with regulations set by HMR&C.  This puts them in a powerful position and in part is the reason why their business model relies on support contracts.

Guy Berruyer countered with the argument that in general, users only utilise 15% of the functionality. There are elements of the software that users only access once or twice a year; end of year returns, etc., These functions are often complex and users require support during specific phases of the fiscal year.

He went on to say that the users valued the fact that there was a Sage employee at the end of a phone line to help them when needed, especially when they are trying to do things at the last minute (such as annual tax returns and PAYE). He suggested that the  open source help model maybe fine for consumers, but businesses would rather have professional support as and when needed.

So are businesses being held to ransom through fear of not being able to operate if they can’t use the software? Should software companies just build more intuitive solutions?

The support answer?

The answer isn’t straightforward; as with Sage and other companies, on occasion we have clients who only use parts of the software once or twice a year. Generally most clients are able to use it without contacting us, but we are there to help at the end of a phone line to guide them through, if needed. As we don’t have annual maintenance agreements we only charge for the time we spend helping the client which can be a lot cheaper than charging an ongoing maintenance agreement.

Our approach to support contracts is based on fairness and value for money, using a simple pay as you go philosophy, that ensures neither party feels aggrieved as charges are  based upon actual work.  This is contrary to Sage’s approach, but then we aren’t selling an off the shelf solution like Sage Line 50.

Depending on the business model adopted by the software company, the application of support contracts will differ widely, but we believe they should all offer value for money and some would question the industries approach to this valuable revenue stream.  We have certainly seen some questionable behaviour by companies both big and small.

The question both parties need to ask is, is it fair for the other party?  A business that expects support 24/7 and uses it regularly should expect to pay more than a business that only need support from time to time.  The user should also realise that a provider cannot fulfill an endless demand for support without some sort of remuneration, it simply isn’t viable.

So, as I said before there is no straight answer and there are a wide variety of options that fit a variety of different business models.  I have listed some typical options: -

• Ad-Hoc Support
  Client pays for the support as and when needed.
• Annual Maintenance Contract (with Service Level Agreement)
  Yearly fee for a fixed number of emails / calls / hours support.
• Support Credits
  Associated with blocks of time, particular jobs are assigned a number of credits, similar to a schedule of rates the building industry uses.
• Discounted support rates
  Time purchased in advance , usually 6 – 12 months.

Conclusion

Resource

The Bottom Line Episode : http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b014qnwx

Get the basics right!

When Brent was working at lastminute.com a lot of the investment and focus was aimed at the areas of the business that were customer facing, such as the branding, the marketing and the user interface on the front end of the website. In other words, what is often seen as the “sexy” parts of the business. However the growth of the business was painful for him because of “the lack of putting the best people on the back-end” and not investing in the “un-sexy” backend systems such as the financial systems and other business processing systems.

It is really about getting the basics right, so that when you are busy your procedures just work; bit like Martin Johnson would say about the English RFU team at the moment.  If you don’t get these right, you are likely to end up with an undisciplined team …

The Pirelli myth

I wouldn’t call business sexy unless you are selling products or otherwise engaged with services pertaining to adult entertainment. But, I do get where he is getting from. All too often businesses are overly focused on the aspects relating to their brand and how people perceive and interact with their brand.

Although there are some great examples of this – the Pirelli Calendars been a great example – businesses cannot rely on smoke and mirrors, there needs to be substance.  In fact we would argue for transparency and do away with the smoke and mirrors all together!

Whilst this is an important part of a companies business strategy, brand is more than just what people see (corporate logos, slogans, visuals and – god forbid – mission statements etc.,) Brand is about the experience a customer goes through when interacting with your business; it is also their perception of your business through a multitude of channels (many of which you cannot control) that include social media, gossip and attitude. If you don’t deliver on your promises, then all the hard work you have put into building your brand is in jeopardy and could be worth nowt. This is why it is important to invest  in the back end systems because it is these systems that will help enable you to deliver inline with the expectations set by your brand. The early investment, is also recommended by Brent, as such things are harder to retrofit into a constantly evolving business (during growth).

Opportunity only knocks once

During starting up, not all companies either have the foresight or indeed the resources to be able to invest in the appropriate systems to help their business grow. They are too busy trying to get their new business off the ground creating products or services, establishing a customer base and their brand. This also means having to make sacrifices that are usually cost based forcing the owner / manager to fill in the gaps. We often hear businesses say that they go from “time rich / cash poor” to “cash rich / time poor” very quickly and if you don’t have the systems in place – and these don’t have to be computer based either – you end up fire fighting and are unable to focus on your clients and take advantage of opportunities you have created.  Our Managing Director has said that a number of business he has spoken to over the years have missed out because they were unable to react and missed time critical opportunities to take their business to the next level.  One of the best examples was a company that described what is now Facebook (but for businesses) – similar to Linkedin at the time Facebook was written; if they had been able to invest in their vision of the future they could well have been one of the big social media sites.  As the old saying goes opportunity only knocks once.

Put another way, businesses grow and get to a stage that it hits a glass ceiling – in terms of the growth – because they are unable to increase their capacity. This is where the lack of initial investment really hits hard.

• The owner / manager is too exhausted to keep going at a thousand miles an hour!
• Constantly firefighting.
• Failure to delivery.
• No planning (strategic growth).
• Over trading (again, lack of strategic growth planning).

This second stage of growth is where we often engage with companies looking to invest either in new systems to help them work more efficiently or systems that will join together the existing random, unconnected business systems to make it easier for them to grow and stay in control, enabling them to focus on their clients.

Conclusion

At whatever stage a business is at, our advice would be to make sure the systems you invest in are chosen to fit the businesses growth plans.  Systems do not have to be computer based; one of our clients invested in manufacturing procedures that got them through the initial stages of growth and meant that when they did invest in computer based systems their internal procedures were we defined and proven, making it easy to deliver a solution that fitted within their environment.  They have just hit £ 30 million and have increased their market share by 200% in the last two years!

If you don’t have the resources to invest in the all singing, all dancing system your business will need, make sure the  system is flexible and can adapt to your businesses needs as you grow.

Resources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15017616

The Pirelli myth

Loyalty cards

Supermarkets have long understood the value in collecting data about their customers; loyalty cards – and even credit cards – enable them to collect information about their customers demographics and buying behaviours, enabling them to target customers with specific offers.  As one supermarket’s slogan says, every little helps, but does it make you feel like a Very Important Person (VIP) – tenuous link for graphic (I know).

Facebook knows the value in understanding their users; it enables them to provide a platform for businesses to target well defined groups of people (although sometimes I do wonder why some adverts are placed on my Facebook page when I log in).  For businesses that aim for specific groups of people, e.g. university students in their third year studying sciences, Facebook would be able to extract this from peoples profiles, status updates, etc.,  Powerful stuff and a little scary?

Who owns your data?

The introduction of Facebook’s time line is another example of how businesses are increasing gathering information about you (Google do the same, the moment you log on to your Google account, use of Google+ and other services including the Chrome browser) and there are many others that I could cite.

Facebook are effectively asking its users to fill in the gaps, that will give them a more complete picture of you, enabling them to use your data even more effectively.  I do not mind sites storing data about me, if they are using it to provide a better user experience, but I object to them using it for their own benefit.

Several years ago I was asked to develop a system that provided an address book that users could carry from one employee to another, similar to sites like LinkedIn, but their intention was to gather data and then sell it on (which I disagreed with and said I didn’t want anything to do with it as I didn’t think they were being honest).

If a company collects data about you, it should be upfront about what it will do with it!

The youth of today (Generation Y)

The younger generation seem happy to live their lives online, be it Twitter, Facebook or another of social media platforms.  They see social media as a way of connecting and staying in touch, although some people (including me) will would question some of the things they are prepared to share!  In fact, whilst discussing this article in the office Vince said that users should not put anything on social media that they don’t wish to be read out in public (or in court for that matter).  The same could be applied to websites you visit, as these are tracked by numerous organisations (not least your Internet Service Provider).

So, why do the younger generation seem to have no apparent fear to publishing images of them getting drunk at university or even – in some extreme cases – rioting on the street of our capitols this summer?

I don’t know the answer to this, but there are statistics coming out that show some Facebook users are virtually living online (no pun intended).

Big brother …

Perhaps it my age, but I am growing increasing concerned with some of the tracking Facebook and others are actively pursuing and are not been entirely open about it.  For instance, were you aware that whilst logged in to your Google account all your searches and page visits are recorded? Did you know that Facebook tracks you by using cookies – whether you are logged on or not – to track your movement (where sites use Facebook “like” buttons and other Facebook connected services).  My main concern is not so much what Facebook do with this data, but what 3rd parties might use the information for, and I am not talking about government agencies as that is entirely different article and I haven’t got my soap box handy!

I read a series of books a couple of years ago – called The Traveler – which is an up to date take on George Orwell’s 1984.  The books are fantastic and a great read, but raise some worrying statistics, about CCTV amongst other tools governments and corporates alike use to spy on us.

Conclusion

As the youth of today become more wired to the internet, who’s responsibility is it to protect them from themselves?  Is big brother sneaking through the back door? Where are the lines that business and / or government should be prevented from crossing? Are you concerned?

Too many questions, but perhaps we should be thinking about this as the businesses behind some of these tools, be they Google, Facebook or others need to have some controls in place.

Resources

Why Facebook’s new Open Graph makes us all part of the web underclass

The Facebook Chart That Freaks Google Out

Facebook is scaring me

Logging out of Facebook is not enough

Post-Google Buzz: Has Google+ Gotten Privacy Right?

1984 (George Orwell)

The Traveler