Month: June 2010

Growth vs efficiency

It seems to me that one of the biggest fallacies of modern business is the idea that you ‘have to grow’. Especially in the small business end of the spectrum, why is it that I always hear how critical (and yet difficult) it is to grow? Apparently growth magically solves everything! The bigger your business the more money you’ll make, the less time individually you’ll have to work and everything will just coast along once you get to a critical mass.

 

So the question then becomes what is that critical mass? At what point will you know that you’ve reached ‘easy street’? I’m sorry to say that in my experience not only is this a moving target but the chances of success actually decrease the bigger that your business becomes. Why? Because unless you have refined your systems beforehand you are simply building any growth on the weak structure you’ve had as a small operator. This is a recipe for disaster.

 

It would seem to me that a far more intelligent pursuit would be striving to become more efficient. In essence producing at least the same amount of output with less amount of input. When you are not able to become more efficient then, and only then, should you consider growth as an option. The problem is how many businesses do you know that are constantly looking at ways to improve their efficiency? Not many I’ll bet.

 

The smaller you are the leaner you need to be simply because you don’t have the resources. You should spend your time firstly determining what you do well. Then you should determine what you don’t do well and either outsource it or stop doing it. Sometimes it is hard to stop doing something you shouldn’t because you truly enjoy it, however if you are running a business and not a hobby then the choice is straight forward.

 

Formula 1 cars don’t achieve the speed and performance they do by adding more, they become more and more efficient. The teams invest vast amounts of time and energy looking to squeeze the tiniest improvement in performance but it is exactly this that makes the difference between outright first and the first of the losers (i.e. second). Formula 1 is a business and those who don’t perform end up on the scrap heap.

 

Ask yourself whether you are a Formula 1 car or simply a lorry trundling along with stuff overflowing the sides. Efficiency is all about doing more with less which is difficult in a consumer world where the emphasis is always to ‘buy more stuff’. That however is the reason why not everyone goes Formula 1 racing, if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

 

So set aside some time to do some planning on how to become more efficient. Work out where you are spending your time. Look at ways to automate and outsource. Efficiency requires constant work and fine tuning but in the end is far cheaper, faster and easier to implement than any growth strategy. Just because people ‘say’ you need to grow doesn’t necessarily make it the correct strategy. Being efficient will always yield results where growth may not. To a business person the choice between the two seems obvious to me.

Are you addicted?

A recent article in the New York Times made me wonder whether in fact it is possible to be addicted to technology. The article is well worth the read and it harps back to what I have said many times about how multitasking is a myth. Is the real issue here that people have become ‘addicted’ to technology?

Addiction actually turns out to be something rather hard to define specifically. Everybody ‘knows’ what addiction is but few can actually satisfactorily define. I like this definition from Robert West (Theory of Addiction) –

‘syndrome at the centre of which is impaired control over behaviours, and this loss of control is leading to significant harm’

Unfortunately this definition also requires us to define what may constitute ‘harm’. For this case let’s consider that we have no more precious resource than time, for once it passes it is gone forever. Thus, let us consider harm as being anything that reduces the time we have.

Let me now ask you, when was the last time you totally unplugged from technology? When did you simply turn everything off for a day or two? Most people probably shudder at the mere thought but doesn’t being unable to do so indicate a loss of control? Doesn’t it indicate an impaired control over your behaviour? In short, doesn’t that indicate addiction?

Sure, there are plenty of great things that technology provides however as I have said before, your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness. The secret is control which when it comes to technology we seem to have less and less of. The distraction virus is a growing problem facing individuals unable to control their dependence on technology. You know these people, there the ‘gunnas’ (i.e. going to do this, going to do that) or those who are always ‘so busy’ when in reality they are living in denial because it is all just an excuse.

This lack of control is causing us to focus on the wrong priorities, it is making us overlook the important, resulting in wasted time. Thus it is causing us harm. Therefore many are addicted but sadly many probably do not even realize it.

At the end of the day it is all about results. Most people don’t care how you get the result they simply care that you get the result. Technology can certainly be used to get results faster and more efficiently but likewise it can also lead us down the path of distraction and even perhaps to addiction. As the article in the New York Times talks about, an obsession with gadgets and technology could be altering your behaviour and if you can no longer control that behaviour then it sounds to me like you may be addicted. If you don’t believe me see how long you can go without checking email.

Microsoft SMB Team down under

Thanks to a boat load of hard work from some SBS-MVP’s here in Australia the Microsoft SMB team is heading to our shores to speak with partners. An added bonus is will also be the attendance of Jeff Middleton of ‘swing’ and Sbsmigration.com fame.

 

All the details about the events, including registration can be found here. If you not only want to hear about the future of the SBS progress but also provide feedback directly to the team that makes SBS then I’d recommend you come along. I will also be a great opportunity to meet with your fellow SBS’ers.

Office Web Apps video

I’ve just uploaded a quick video that give you a brief overview of Office Web Apps running on SharePoint 2010.

Brief introduction to Microsoft Office Web Apps – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XA7bqdTxGo

 

The video demonstrates how a Word document can be viewed and edited in a browser as well as opened in the full version of Word. Short and simply but at least you get the idea.

 

I’ll have a few more videos about Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 stuff coming soon, so stay tuned.

Backup or be devastated

Here’s a copy of an article I wrote that appears in an e-zine from MyMate (on page 13) which can be found at:

 

http://www.wanttobebigger.com/MyMate-e-zine-June-2010.html

 

In the world of technology your last line of defence is the humble back
up, yet many businesses, especially small ones, remain extremely
caviller about this critical function of a business.

Nearly every business these days depends on IT. So what happens
when IT isn’t available? You have probably experienced a mild disaster
such as the internet being unavailable or a hard disk failing. The
question is, how long did that issue interrupt your business and how
much money did it cost you?

Now imagine a much bigger disaster, say your office being burnt down
or flooded. How long would it take you to get up and running again?
Most small businesses have never invested the time to consider their
disaster recovery planning – and they should – because without it there
is good chance they’ll go out of business after even a minor problem.

Let’s examine one simple aspect of disaster planning, backups. Most
businesses would probably say that they do backups, the problem is that
is only half of the solution. When was the last time that you actually
tested that your backups worked? You certainly don’t want to find out
that your backups don’t work after a disaster. So it is important that you
regularly test that you can restore from your backups. You should also
plan on doing a complete restore of all your data somewhere every 6-12
months to make sure you can get it all back.

Next consider how you would cope in a real disaster like a fire. What
plans do you have in place to keep your business operational? How long
will it take you to get up and going? How are you going to cope having to
get new IT resources like workstations, servers and printers? It really is
much better to plan for these eventualities ahead of time rather than
trying to have to manage them on top of everything else in the event of a
disaster.

Hopefully you will never have to implement your IT disaster plan but it is
important that you not only have one but that you practice its
implementation. This means that at least once a year you should
simulate an IT disaster and see how well your plan works and what may
need adjusting.

Too many businesses see their IT as simply an overhead. They fail to
realise that it is one of the most vulnerable parts of your business –
without which, you may be unable to operate.

If you value your data then you should value your backup and disaster
recovery plan, as they are going to save you. It is no good trying to
develop these in the middle of a disaster. They need to be planned,
implemented and tested beforehand, because as they say failing
to plan only means you’re planning to fail.

SharePoint popularity increasing

I see and read all the time about how SharePoint uptake is increasing but I want to share with you a personal metric I have found that indicates exactly this.

 

For quite a while I’ve been posting videos on YouTube firstly under the Saturn Alliance banner and then under CIAOPS. The most popular for years has been:

 

Getting Started with Virtual PC – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSBbpPDWFUE

 

which covers the basics of getting a Virtual machine running using Microsoft Virtual PC. This week was I went through my metrics I noted that this video has now risen to highest number of views:

Linking SharePoint 2007 with Outlook 2007 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9CnBNVnBjk

 

To me this certainly indicates, in some small way perhaps, that SharePoint is indeed gaining in popularity. Further reinforcing this view came when I attended the partner launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in Sydney this week. Much of the productivity benefits of Office 2010 need to be experienced with SharePoint 2010 as the back end. It was heartening to finally see Microsoft putting SharePoint on the same plain as other Office 2010 and recommending that partners go out and start implementing it. I couldn’t agree more.

New portals from CIAOPS

Now that the June update for my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide has been released (including the first instalment of how to get SharePoint Foundation 2010 running on SBS 2008) I can now turn my attention to getting two new portals ready for release on July 1.

 

Part of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide has always been a DVD that contained not only guides covering Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Windows Foundation Server 2010 (WSF) but was also filled with training material, white papers, videos and more. The major problem has been that as this information grows the DVD ISO became larger and larger making it longer to upload as well as download for subscribers. Also, even though I include a searchable index of the Guide documents, it doesn’t include all the other material on the DVD.

 

To overcome both of these issues and provide even greater resources for Guide subscribers I am moving all the content to a hosted SharePoint site. This means that both subscribers and I can add information to the site and have it all readily indexed and available. Much easier.

 

Also on July 1, I plan to make available via subscription a Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) portal. In here will be information in and around BPOS including how to get signed up as a partner, marketing and sales material, a technical knowledge base and an extensive list of BPOS links.

 

Again the idea is that subscribers can also contribute information and knowledge to the portal in order for it grow in value. I have a few people testing it now but I plan to make it available for $120 ex GST (basically $10 per month) for subscribers.

 

Having both of these as SharePoint sites also has another benefit for subscribers, it gives you real world experience with SharePoint. Firstly, subscribers can improve their knowledge of SharePoint by using the portals, secondly they can understand how SharePoint can be used as a knowledge store and finally it means I will be able to update both sites on a regular basis rather than only monthly. Using the power of SharePoint attributes, such as email alerts, subscribers will be able to know exactly when new or updated information becomes available.

 

In the longer run I plan to start using shared OneNote files to provide even greater flexibility with the information I make available. This is part of the ongoing iterations being made to try and improve the information the CIAOPS makes available.

 

As always if you want more information or have some suggestions of what should be included don’t hesitate to contact me (director@ciaops.com) as I’d love to hear. Oh yes, all existing Guide subscribers will automatically get access to my new BPOS portal for the duration of their subscription. Another great reason to sign up to the Guide.

Co-authoring documents with SharePoint 2010

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One of the major reasons for implementing SharePoint 2010 is that, combined with Office 2010, you can do something called co-authoring. This means that two (or more) people can be working on the same file TOGETHER! Thus, no more locked files and waiting for the other person to save and make it available.

 

As you can see in the above screen shot here I am co-authoring a Word document saved on a SharePoint 2010 Foundation server. When two people access the same file and place it in edit mode you’ll see a little people icon in the lower left of the screen indicating multiple access. If you click on that icon you’ll see a list of people currently co-authoring the document.

 

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If you also combine Office Communications Server you can chat or even speak with this person directly. Imagine how much better that would be than emailing a document back and forth. Also imagine how well this will work across the Internet using something like Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) when this features becomes available soon.

 

You’ll also note that document shows the edits the other person is making live. In the above screen shot you are looking at user Robert Crane and can see that the administrator user is making changes to a paragraph. These are almost real time (depending on your connection speed to SharePoint 2010).

 

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When changes are saved to the document by others they show up marked in green like for you, so:

 

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As you save the document your changes are also committed to the document and you receive any saved updates by other users. No more attachments necessary, as the file lives on SharePoint.

 

There are plenty of features and abilities with this co-authoring of Office 2010 and SharePoint. Best of all it is available across the whole Office 2010 application range. I can tell you that in OneNote 2010 this is absolutely brilliant, making a great product even better. It actually turns out that this co-authoring concept came from what previous versions of OneNote could do with SharePoint. As I have said before, OneNote is really THE killer app for SharePoint and now it is available in every version of Office 2010 so how can you afford to ignore it?

 

If you haven’t given co-authoring, or OneNote for that matter, a try then I suggest you do.