Following on from my last post (aka rant), I have been upsetting people internally by translating many of the superb new developments in the MIGTurbo 2.0 security profile into real world application.
I kept finding myself being hit by statements such as ‘client groups do not define security policy’ and ‘once assigned a role becomes a policy’, to which I usually retort,’ I am a user, why do I care!’. Whilst churlish, it does help frame matters from a users perspective – does it matter!, so what if you can lock access down to 3 decimal places if the system becomes unusable.
It is so easy to lose sight of usability in a mêlée of functions and features. I am pleased therefore to report, both security and usability appear to be capably accommodated in my first preview of the all new MIGTurbo 2.0 development.
Charles Uncategorized
Whilst I should not be surprised, I am! Who drives ‘innovation’ in today’s software products! To me, the latest version of Microsoft Office is unrecogniseable compared to 2003, everything I want from the menu system has moved or worse, simply does not exist any more. How does a company become so arrogant or out of touch with its users! Functions that I have used everyday for years no longer exist. My latest realisation is that I cannot save documents to my C:\ drive, apparently it is a security threat. I can copy the file to my desktop and then to my c:\ drive but not to my c:\ drive directly. It’s a bit like saying you cannot buy cigarettes because you are too young, however we will sell you tobacco and cigarette paper separately.
I must be getting old, I used to revel in technology, eagerly awaiting each new release and often feeling let down because the raft of new functions were superficial and of no real significance. Now I feel let down because each function is wrapped in so much ‘cotton wool’ by the time I have managed to get to the function, I have forgotten what I wanted to do in the first place.
Charles Uncategorized Office 2007, Office 2010
Apparently, The Department of Trade & Industry have “been working on a project for some time to develop an e-commerce solution for local independent retailers with a leading UK service provider called Venda. This solution is {apparently} beyond what is currently available on Island and will not only have a significant impact on our local retail sector but will also generate a considerable amount of work for supporting service provider companies, specifically in the areas of web and branding design, web services, online marketing, copywriting and photography.”
It is incredible that a local government body can seek and obtain approval to spend significant revenue with an off island supplier, and in doing so deprive local businesses of a valuable revenue stream when there are clearly service providers on the island who have both the infrastructure and the necessary skills to provide these services. Far worse - to my mind, is to claim “There are no credible e-business providers on the Isle of Man”. When you consider the level of investment in infrastructure - Domicilium, Manx, Wi-Manx etc., service provision such as isleofman.com, e-business service providers such as ourselves. - Freedom to Flourish!.. actions, speak louder than words.
Charles Response Department of Trade and Industry, e-Commerce, Isle of Man Government
What a sunny place Brighton is. I had the good fortune to attend a conference there last week, glorious sunshine and very clean. What I learnt however, was nothing to do with the resort itself, it was more about records management and the challenges organisations face trying to keep on top of the Freedom of Information Act.
Basically, there appears to be a lot of systems out there that enable you to track and manage documents held, however, cracks appear where you have an organisation with multiple systems. This is compounded by different systems’ use of different references to identify the individual about whom the stored documentation refers.
I have a solution: CRM. By managing all this information in a client/customer centric manner, we can provide a mechanism that enables businesses/organisations to keep information on their client/customer; maintaining security/integrity of data (where necessary) between departments/divisions etc., and still enabling a single point of reference so the records manager can swiftly identify which systems contain information relating to the which client/customer.
No more rainy days for me!
Charles MIGTurbo CRM, Document Management, Freedom of Information
Following on from Nathan’s last post, the question that springs to mind is Why Bother! The reason, in a single word is ‘Confidence’, if you lose the clients confidence you have lost the war. Regardless of the label you assign a business like ours, we develop software. Business software, productivity software, CRM software, the label is secondary to the fact we build software solutions, and part of the solution is a product that works. If a product is slow and laboured, it may be the most functional, secure, useable product on the market, however, all you will hear from users is ‘it’s slow’. And they would be right! Clients need to be confident that the investment they have made actually improves productivity and slow systems don’t tend to inspire that confidence.
The largest cost to most businesses today is labour and a slow network, PC, or software application is costing you money, every single hour of each and every day it is in use.
If a computer operator regularly waits for their PC to process instructions, you could easily be losing 20 - 50% (or more) productivity per staff member. This means that in order to support a 50% growth in business you will need to either increase staff by 50% or increase productivity by 50%, and one of the simplest ways of improving productivity is to use the correct tools for the job.
When it comes to Business productivity - faster is usually better!
Charles MIGTurbo User Experience (UX)
It seems like fate, just when you get onto the topic of something you really believe in, it appears everyone conspires to really emphasise why you believe what you believe. We are a regular user of a remote desktop service application. Fantastic product, works, doesn’t require weekly updates, doesn’t require you to re-learn the user interface every week (unlike some on-line presentation software we USED to use), really great product. Yesterday, my opinion changed, they have just released their latest version, the interface is as black as polished ebony, and quite frankly, is depressing to use. What I really want to know is who gets the final say on what the user (or paying customer) really wants! From my recent experience it appears anyone but the users themselves.
In software development, (assuming the software meets the client’s business requirements), the UX should be king, long live the UX!
Charles Uncategorized
How do you advance a technology or product when the tools you use are deprecated and the new ones are…. well in some ways, not as good!
I read somewhere that technology reaches it’s zenith just before it becomes obsolete, examples that spring to mind are the old vacuum flourecent displays used on typewriters, replaced by CRT displays, replaced by LCD displays which in turn will soon be replaced by OLED displays.
We are soon to release our MIGTurbo 1.9 revision of our award winning CRM software, this will be the last revision of a product based upon Microsoft ASP technology, which has proven to be incredibly fast and easy to use. The next revision (version 2.0) will be based on .NETand AJAX. Whilst this is an essential milestone on our development road map, it presents a number of design ‘considerations’ that were not presented in ASP.
Sometimes ‘keeping it simple’, is not as easy as we would like.
Charles Uncategorized
Nathan forwarded me a link recently extolling the fact that CRM is dead, long live CEM:
Whilst I don’t disagree with some of the points made in the article, I do feel that this type of argument requires you to take a ‘position’. Citing quotations such as:
“Do I have a relationship with 17 million people? I don’t think I do.
Do I interact with 17 million people? You bet.”
Jim VonDerheide, vice president, CRM Strategies, for Hilton Hotels
..to my mind completely overlooks the fact that for most small medium sized operations, CRM is actually about the business process, and getting things done ‘back-office’ in the most cost and time efficient manner thereby providing the client with an efficient and cost effective service.
It is obviously important for a business to present itself professionally and value its clients, however, let’s not lose sight of what business is about - singularly that is profit, profit pays salaries, rent, and every other incidental that needs to be paid for, lose sight of this at your peril.
Charles Articles CRM
Identifying the need for re-engineering elements of your business processes using Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) techniques is often difficult. Identifying both the need and defining a solution can present a major challenge. That’s where an experienced partner with an existing toolset can help.
In February’s edition of Portfolio, (an Isle of Man publication targetting the local business sector. ) ‘Turbocharging your business with BPR‘, expands on how a business identifies the need for BPR and implementing change.
Charles Publications BPR, Portfolio
A recent snippet published in the Isle of Man Examiner - about how Amazon has profited from festive sales highlights; when it comes to converting visitors into purchasers, a simple format will serve you well. Unlike many retailers, Amazon was not been hit by the cutback in consumer spending. Profit at online retailer Amazon rose 9% in the final three months of last year, as the company enjoyed a robust holiday shopping season. I stongly suspect this has as much to do with the simplicity with which you can complete a purchase as the price/choice and selection offered. Comparing this to a recent shopping experience with eBay, where I found I had used my credit card at some earlier point and then - silly me, had forgotten my password, only highlights why simplicity is often a BIG factor in success.
Charles Douthwaite writes a weekly column called Web Snippets, published every Tuesday in The Isle of Man Examiner.
Charles Web Snippets Amazon, eBay
