Email newsletter coming soon

After some thought I have come to the conclusion that blogs are great but they are typically very unstructured. As an author what you see here is normally what grabs my fancy at any time. Many people reading this blog may wish to refer to items at a later stage but all that can get messed up in the whole RSS reader thing. Also, if you wanted to refer to an item that was mentioned some time ago it may be difficult to find given the fact that the topics aren’t particularly structured. It doesn’t make the most appropriate communication medium does it?

I’ve also decided that if I want to lift my profile I need to access people who don’t traditionally regularly read blogs (which is probably the majority of people in the real world isn’t it?). For these people the most effective method of communication is via email since they are more familiar with receiving and retaining it for future reference. From a marketing point of view it is also probably easier for them to forward email correspondence than to refer a contact to a blog.

With all this in mind I have decided from this month I’m going to start doing a regular email newsletter (probably every month at this stage). It will contain topics that I discuss here on my blog (but in a more structured manner), information about technology (especially cloud computing) and what’s happening with the CIAOPS (like my upcoming SharePoint webinar).

So what I’m initially asking for is that if you read this blog kinda regularly, if you could go and sign up for my newsletter at:

http://ciaops.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf

I would really appreciate it.

I’m looking to produce the first newsletter around the 15th of January so if you have any suggestions about what you’d like to see, what you think would interest people or how I should do this then I’d love to hear from you (director@ciaops.com). I can’t promise that I’ll get it right initially but I can promise that I’ll be looking at working constantly to improve what I offer based on feedback, so don’t be shy, let me know your thoughts.

Two more points

An interesting read over on Dave Overaton’s blog ”Server line-up for small businesses (and home) is increasing in options (or complexity for some) – SBS 2008, Home, Foundation, Windows Standard Server or BPOS – how do you choose?” where he attempts to discern the best option in IT for a small business.

Interestingly he rates a Windows PC network at the top and SBS and Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite last. I also especially liked these charts he has come up with:

and

Now I am generally in agreement with the conclusions that he reaches but I think that he has overlooked two important facts.

1. It is unlikely that a single IT solution is going to be adopted by most businesses these days.

As I noted in my recent blog post “Up in the sky”, in relation to cloud services at least

“data also shows that only 16% of those who have adopted cloud computing, or will within 12 months, will go solely with an off-premises model. But 50% of those respondents will go with a mixture on both on-premises and off premises.”

So what about the combination of a Windows PC network and BPOS? What about Windows Foundation server combined with BPOS? These are certainly going to provide far more options and flexibility than just the single product on its own.

2. Do not overlook the impact of Google Apps

If there ever an elephant in the room that most Microsoft types constantly neglect, ignore, dismiss over overlook it’s Google. Using their cloud based solution of Google Apps works extremely well for businesses in this target market (much like BPOS does). Again, it will provide its strongest appeal when used in conjunction with a Windows network or Windows Foundation server say.

I understand where Dave is coming from in his analysis but I’d like to contend that he is thinking about SMB customers in terms of the ‘old world’. Today’s SMB customers want the flexibility to work anywhere, with unlimited access to their data and the ability to share it will all the members of their team easily and quickly. They don’t want to shell out thousands of dollars for a server based solution (read SBS) when they can achieve something almost identical with online services on a per month per user basis. As I have said many time before, cloud computing not only changes the technology side of the argument but it also changes the economic argument for a customer. This economic model is far more important to a customer generally.

Dave has done a remarkable job with his analysis however he has perhaps unwittingly confirmed again, in my mind at least, the way technology people look at technology is not the way that customers do. Secondly, it highlights the fact that resellers face a herculean task trying to support the huge variety of possible solutions for a customer. That is sure fire way to burn people out in the end. Finally, I still see that online services, from Goggle, Microsoft or whomever, are going to have a major impact in the SMB space.

Upcoming SharePoint webinar

Announcing the first of the CIAOPS webinars for 2010.

100107 – SharePoint Questions and Answers 1

Topics covered:
– Configuring and scheduling command line backups
– Document management best practices
– SharePoint alternatives and downsides
– SharePoint 2010 Foundation
– Embedding YouTube into SharePoint

Presenter: Robert Crane
Date: Thursday 7th of January 2010
Time: 10.00am (Sydney, Australia time)
Duration: 60 minutes
Cost: $10 ex GST
Level: 2 (Intermediate)
Prerequisites: None

Details
This webinar will answer many of the most popular questions we see regarding SharePoint technologies.

Registration: To register send an email to director@ciaops.com.

Don’t forget that our previous webinars:

091112 – Introduction to SharePoint (Free)

091126 – Basics of using SharePoint (Free)

091210 – Basic SharePoint administration ($10)

Are also available upon request (director@ciaops.com)

I hope to see you there.

Up in the sky

A few posts ago (I smell fear) I was lamenting the fact that Microsoft seemed to be getting pretty desperate about getting resellers on board to sell its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). I pointed out that in my opinion existing resellers and their inertia when moving to this new platform was going to be a millstone around Microsoft’s neck that it needed to address.

Now the following article ‘Microsoft must sell the cloud to IT Pros in 2010’ covers similar ground. The article points confirms a number points that I have been speaking about for quite a while, such that if IT Pros

“don’t get in line to compete [with online services], they put themselves at a significant risk of being not there when real money starts to get spent in this space.”

and the fact that a majority of businesses are going to be dipping their toes into the world of online services:

and that BPOS is the best opportunity for IT resellers:

“The most popular is software-as-a-service, represented for Microsoft by BPOS, and infrastructure as a service, represented by SQL Azure and integration technology.”

and finally Microsoft has a major challenge on its hands but only a limited time frame in which to achieve it:

EMA’s Mann says couple all that with the fact that “IT never gets rid of anything” and you have a situation where “IT is not going to move to the cloud, they are going to add the cloud to what they have.”

And how IT can go about doing that will be Microsoft’s challenge. The clock begins ticking louder in 2010.

The reality is that most businesses are considering the adoption of some form of cloud technology in their business. It is certainly, not in the short term at least, going to replace on premise infrastructure it will supplement it. However the majority of IT Pros that I know have no online strategy at all, they like Microsoft, are focusing on the wrong aspects of changes online services are going to usher in. It is not about selling a per month service, it is about what opportunities become available with the wide spread availability of these tools.

To survive in this new environment you are either going to make money by volume (many sales at low margin) or specialization (fewer sales at much higher margins). It seems to me the option with the least effort required is simply moving up the food chain (i.e. the second option) but this appears to put the fear of God into so many IT Pros. Why? Because in past they became comfortable selling their IT knowledge. The reality is that Google has changed that landscape FOREVER. As evolution has taught us, now is the time to adapt or perish, because the window of opportunity will not remain open forever.

All new and shiny

I have now swapped over to the new hosting package for www.ciaops.com that I have been talking about of late. A bit early perhaps but I wanted to make sure it was all operational by the first of January.

Now, there is still plenty of work to do but the first step is always making the change. My previous design had the navigation menu on the right hand side of the screen much like my other recent web site upgrade (www.anzacsinfrance.com). I asked a few people their thoughts and they said that the perhaps the menu should go on the right. ‘I don’t like that’, was my initial reaction, ‘this is MY web site’, I thought. Wrong! I then remembered the whole reason I had gone down this refurbishment path. I was looking to create a web site that worked for visitors not for my own ego.

I swallowed my pride and decided that I needed to do some research. The first place I went to was probably one of the most popular sites on the Internet – Amazon. Guess what? Menus on the left. What about the BBC? Again, menus on the left. Wikipedia? Again, menus on the left. If I wasn’t finally convinced I found a tool form Google called Browser size.

According to the site:

Google Browser Size is a visualization of browser window sizes for people who visit Google. For example, the “90%” contour means that 90% of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least this size or larger.

This is useful for ensuring that important parts of a page’s user interface are visible by a wide audience. On the example page that you see when you first visit this site, there is a “donate now” button which falls within the 80% contour, meaning that 20% of users cannot see this button when they first visit the page. 20% is a significant number; knowing this fact would encourage the designer to move the button much higher in the page so it can be seen without scrolling.

So if I had my menus on the right of the page it was likely less people would have been seen them without scrolling. This would have meant they were less likely to stay and view the content, which is exactly what I don’t want.

Luckily with the new hosting tool, swapping the columns was a piece of cake and after doing this I must admit I liked the site better myself. This whole process goes to prove my earlier point about focusing on the reasons you have for doing something. I have some very specific goals for my web site going forward but what good is that if I ignore that when I go about implementation? Like derrrr, however it is very, very easy to overlook. I must now revisit some of my other projects and see if I’m making similar mistakes. Focus grasshopper, focus.

Another great set of tools to help me achieve my web site goals I have found is Google Webmaster Tools.

Once I have configured my sites in here I can see if they appear in Google and not only what search queries have resulted in my site being displayed but also how my sites raking in that query. There is a whole swag of tools available here that I need to fully explore but honestly, it is yet another way that Google is helping my business. Best of all, like most of Google’s stuff, Webmaster Tools is free. I once again see this a confirmation that Microsoft is falling behind in the battle to win hearts and minds in this ‘new economy’.

So I’m off to do some more fiddling and migrating of my web site www.ciaops.com. Stop by, have a look and let me know what you think as I’d really love to get feedback from some real visitors. Feel free to contact me via email (director@ciaops.com) with your thoughts.

Improving the response to feedback

I’m a big one for measurements and metrics. You know the saying – ‘If you can’t measure it then you probably shouldn’t be doing it’. This statement however probably neglects the most important aspect of metrics, that being adjustment. Once you measure something you need to use the results to improve what you are measuring. In many ways that means creating a constant feedback loop as changes are made and then their results are compared, changes made and then measurements taken again. Sometimes, an adjustment may make things a little worse or with any luck, a little better. In the big picture, the result should show a continual improvement.

One of the areas where I have been making measurements but failing to make adjustments has been with my web site www.ciaops.com. I have watched as the metrics have continued to fall and for various reasons failed to lift a finger to make any changes. From January 1 that is going to change as I have migrated my main web site to a new platform and am committing myself to much closer monitoring and adjustment going forward. The main reason for this is that I am coming to appreciate how critical a web site now is when selling your business. It is the number one place where potential customer will come to check out who you are and what you have to offer. If you fail to measure up here, guess what? They’ll be gone.

Probably the major reason that I failed to make adjustments to my web site was simply the fact that the platform I was on with my previous ISP was simply so ancient now. I was working with old fashion tools trying to keep up with the modern advances of the web. Having identified previously that I did need to do something I soon came to appreciate that the platform I was on was not going to be suitable. That has driven me on an extensive search of what is available and I am now very confident of the platform I am adopting. Yet that is still not good enough. As ‘good’ as I ‘think’ this platform is, a ‘nice’ as I think my remodelled web site will be it makes no difference now unless I see improvements in my metrics. This means I need to focus more fully on what visitors use my site for. This means I need to spend more time looking in depth the analytics of my web site. It means making changes to my site that may not seem to make sense to me but in the end I need to focus on what I deliver to people who visit my site because it is going to the central to my business in the future.

My initial attempt at migrating my site is clearly going to be far from the most effective result possible however, the important thing will be my enhanced focus on examining the site metrics and make adjustments. With 2010 fast approaching let me ask you firstly whether you have adequate metrics in place for the critical aspects of your business? Secondly, I’d ask that if you do have these metrics in place what are you doing with them? For it is silly to simply collect the results without converting them into action.

When my new site goes live around January 1 have a look and let me know what you think because now I have the tools and desire to make the site what it should truly be – the central location of my business going forward and I can use all the feedback I can get.

Dear web hoster

Haven’t I been a good customer? Haven’t I always paid my bills and never asked any really demanding questions? Haven’t I been using your service for over 10 years now as well as bringing all my clients along as well? But guess what? I’ve finally realized that I’ve been stupid. I’ve allowed you to take me for granted, take my money and provide nothing above the basics in return. Now that I’ve finally woken up to this fact guess what? I’m outta here.

If you look at any business, it probably makes 80% of its money from 20% of its customers. Typically these 20% simply pay their accounts every month and continue to buy product from you, but what do you do for them? In all the years I’ve been with my ISP I think they have contacted me once about upgrading the plans that I was on and that was because they wanted me to shift to a new server. Was that better for me? Nope, it was better for them. What was in it for me? Nothing except extra expense. Now I maybe dumb but I ain’t stupid. Why should I pay more and get nothing additional? Give me a break. Is this how you treat me after all these of good patronage?

How many relationships in business (and life) do we take for granted? Too many I’ll bet. We simply assume they’ll always be there and thus, we never need to do anything to maintain them. Problem is that overtime, left unattended like a garden, the weeds start to grow. The relationship starts to decay as the parties drift apart. Now the bonds that maintain that relationship become weaker and weaker until even the smallest change the landscape causes them to break. The smallest enticement is enough for the customer to switch.

Clearly my current web hoster really doesn’t care if I’m a customer, even after all these years. Even though I maybe small fry I feel totally taken for granted. Even as I scaled back my investment with the web hoster I have still not received any queries as to whether there were any problems or something additional that could be done to retain my business. So rather than be continually ignored I’m taking all my business elsewhere. Worse still, I’m going to tell everyone that I’ve done that. That can’t be good for the web hoster’s business now can it?

It doesn’t take much to maintain a strong relationship but like a garden it still needs to be tended. It needs to have the occasional weed removed. If not, then that lack of focus soon becomes obvious and it’s generally down hill from there.

If you don’t know which customers in you business contribute the most to your profitability then you should. Once you do look after them and fire the 80% who continually cause you grief. The impact of losing a good customer is going to far higher and typically you won’t realize it until it is too late. Even if your car is running well you take in for service don’t you? If you aren’t doing that with your best customers now, like me, it is only a matter of time before they are someone else’s clients.

Free CD sampler

If you interested in IT resources then I’d suggest you head over to SMB Books to have a look at what they have to offer. You may even find that last minute Christmas gift for that geek who is near and dear to you. One thing you will find is a free CD Sampler that SMB Books have put together showcasing a range of products that are available on the site.

A full listing of the products that are showcase on the CD Sampler can be found here. Low and behold you’ll find that one of the products showcased is my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide. As part of the offering for the CD I have made available a number of my documents as well as well as interviews that I have conducted recently. However, you’ll also plenty of really handy stuff on there and best of all it is free to you. Simply complete the details on the request page and lickity split you’ll have a CD before you can say Merry Christmas!