The ‘Distraction Virus’

Here’s yet another article about the negative effects of technology distractions on the workplace and society in general.

 

Some take aways:

“Training needs to include distraction coping mechanisms. Company training programs teach applications, and sometimes even productivity. But maybe it’s time to institute training programs that explicitly help people cope with online distractions.”

 

Couldn’t agree more. For example, most employees are simply ‘expected’ to know how to use emails. They are never trained or shown how to use it as a business tool. In most cases they don’t have time to learn how to use email programs like Outlook effectively so they simply use it in the most basic manner. This is hugely inefficient and takes a significant toll on the productivity of the business. With some simple training and guidance this can be easily overcome.

 

“Productivity means nothing if time gained is squandered”

 

You can save all the time in the world but if you spend that mindless surfing the web, YouTube, Facebook, blogs etc then it is a zero gain. The problem is that we have created technologies designed to distract and entice us away from our work and this trend is only going to increase.

 

“Think about the obesity problem. A century ago, America had the world’s healthiest population, tallest people and best food. Fast forward to today. The quality of food has declined as the quantity has increased. Now 60 percent of Americans are overweight, and a quarter clinically obese. And low-quality food is also making us shorter.”

 

This is very interesting analogy to what is happening on the Internet these days. The article talks about how the younger generation are being driven to distraction and likewise to under achievement. We are all feeding on a sugary diet of technology distraction that is causing us to waste our time mindlessly and fail to achieve our goals. Every day it is getting worse and the article laments the future, where like our diets, we have gorged ourselves beyond the point of no return.

 

Much like the growing obesity epidemic we now face a distraction epidemic that is ruining our productivity and our competitiveness. As the articles says:

 

“The individual, the company, the nation that is best at avoiding distractions in the future will have an enormous advantage in the competitive marketplace.”

I see the ‘distraction virus’ in so many businesses and most don’t even know they have it. For that reason I have created my Smarter productivity and Do less emails products. Also don’t forget my free The problems with emails document and Overcoming email frustrations books to help comprehend and combat distractions.

 

Clearly, we need to start changing the way we use technology or we are going to pay the price.

Mobility the key

Interesting that now the sales of laptop have surpassed desktops as this article says, isn’t it? And according to this article, 2009 is going to be the year of the smart phone. It seems everyone has taken to these Web 2.0 and social networking sites and want to be able to update them from anywhere. It also seems that it isn’t just the young’ns that are doing it, entire demographics are discovering the benefits of Web 2.0 technology.

 

To me it shows the trend that people want to be able to access their stuff where ever they are. They don’t want to be tied down to a desk, they want the freedom of being anywhere and still be able to access all their stuff through their mobile or wireless broadband connection. For me this is simply verification that at the back end cloud computing is becoming more and more important.

 

If you are a reseller then you really want to be taking close note of these trends and making sure that you are able to make revenue from them, because if you don’t then someone else will. Problem is as demand increases prices and margins get driven down so you need to consider your strategy carefully. Yet there is opportunity.

 

A good example of an innovative Web 2.0 application I recently found is Wesabe. It allows you to manage you accounts and bills but the innovative part of it is you can get advice from other on how to save money, where to buy the cheapest item, what specials are available. The whole idea is that by creating a “community” people can help each other not only achieve their financial goals but also save money. I think this concept is a very powerful part of Web 2.0 in that you are using the collective intelligence of the Internet community, which given the size of the Internet population is pretty powerful.

 

It is these trends that you can’t ignore. Even if you can’t understand why people are moving that way you have to accept that they are. If you want a piece of the action then you need to put aside your “technology prejudices” and look for the opportunities. As I have said before, if you are a technology reseller, decide whether you want to own a business or enjoy a hobby. If you want to own a business you have to move to where the demand is or you face being marginalized.

IT will suffer as well

Now I’m no economist but I must admit that I’m pretty sceptical when I hear people claim that the IT industry won’t suffer as much as other industries in this downturn. To further disprove that notion consider the following article from the Australian newspaper, which says in part:

 

THE IT industry suffered a major decline in job advertisements for 2008 recording a 37.17 per cent fall compared to 2007 figures.

 

The IT industry was the fifth worst affected market for job advertisements…

The tech industry has performed worse than the general economic situation because these jobs tend to be more caught up with global organisations that are taking financial hits in all global markets..

Like I said I’m no economist but times in tech are going to be tough, if not now then real soon. The first half of 2009 is going to see some major changes in the way businesses operate and will operate in the future. If you are an IT reseller then you need to be making adjustments to your business now. You need to be minimizing expenses, watching your cashflow and looking for alternate sources of income to name just a few.

 

If you fail to this your chances of running into problems is much greater and you’ll have less room to make adjustments then. Sure you love technology and prefer to ignore the “business-stuff” but guess what? If your business goes bust, then you’ll be on the unemployment lines and if you only have IT skills then I’m sorry to report (as the above says) there is over a 35% drop in IT jobs on offer. Good luck finding work.

 

So do something NOW to ensure your business survival. We all have to do things we don’t like in life but in the long run it may mean you can continue doing what you love.

I’m sick of patching

You know that you’ve go to do it. You know that it could cause problems with yours and your customers systems but all good tech people know that it is just a part of life. Sigh.

 

A recent post from Susan Bradley detailing recommendations of how resellers should approach patching just confirms to me why I want someone else to do this. There is just so much time and hassle involved it demonstrates to me that we have built our technology on shaky ground. I acknowledge that patching applies to all software simply because it is developed by fallible human beings but man, you’d think it would be getting better. Even if you aren’t a techie read the post and consider that someone should be doing this for all your systems at least every month. What a waste or time and money but without doubt it needs to be done. Sigh.

 

The most likely reason is that because technology is so pervasive these days it means it has to support people who have software from pre-Y2K to 2009. That’s a hell of a lot of software and when you start mixing and matching it on different PC’s, that an even greater number of variations you have to account for and patch.

 

I can see why customers believe that there is conspiracy going on here between developers and IT professionals. Not only do they have to pay for the software they also generally have to pay for someone to update it and debug and issues that arise. To a customer this is painful and seems to happen on a never ending basis.

 

Again, it confirms to me why cloud computing is so appealing from a customers point of view. Any updates are applied on someone else’s hardware and they don’t have to worry, it is all part of the monthly fee. Sure, many resellers make money out of offering update services but I reckon many customers don’t have this service and many probably don’t want to pay for it anyway. It is always tough to sell a service that simply maintains the status quo. To be more effective maybe you are better off simply selling a repair service and making money when the client finally appreciates they should have done something. I’ll guarantee you’ll have their full attention then!

 

Honestly, this is all getting far to hard. Honestly, you gotta wonder whether these IT systems are really making any return on investment given the constant maintenance that is involved. Honestly, I’m sick of testing patches on multiple systems before I apply them in production. Honestly, I’m sick of the downtime they cause. Honestly, I want it to be someone else’s problem because it is all just too much work and it is preventing me from doing my work!

Unorganized email use is a time waster

I’ve spoken before about how constant email notification interruptions can waste up to eight hours a week, simply due to the time it requires to recover from such distractions. I’ve also spoken about the fact that most businesses simply assume their employees know how to use email correctly, when in fact they don’t. Here’s an article that provides further ammunition about how much time inefficient use of email costs.

 

An article in the UK Telegraph says:

 

The survey, of 4,000 people from 150 UK businesses, will show that the average worker wastes one hour every day through inefficient use of email.

 

… said that workers had not been given appropriate training for proper use of emails.

 

…but seldom if ever given any formal training on or provided any corporate guidelines for, it’s no wonder that email is a significant sources of stress, miscommunication and inefficiency for companies and individuals.

Now don’t forget that one hour a week wasted is ON TOP OF any time also lost due to interruptions!

 

It is really amazing when you stop and think about the fact that there probably is not a knowledge worker anywhere that doesn’t use email and yet their company has never bothered to train them in how to use it correctly. Therefore, for every employee a business has, they are wasting at least a 10-15% of their potential. In this day and age what business can afford to throw away 10-15% of their output per employee?

 

I have created a free downloadable document that details many of the common frustration of email that any business or individual should look at overcoming. As a lead on from this, I have also created the following documents: Overcoming email frustrations in Outlook 2007 and Overcoming email frustrations in Outlook 2003 which are available in print and downloadable format. Normally, these books sell for about $35 but until January 31, 2009 I have a special deal going which you can find out about here. To take advantage of this offer please contact me directly via director@ciaops.com.

 

Also, don’t forget we also conduct email productivity seminars in your office to help everyone become more effective with email and save you at least an hour a day that you can spend on getting your work done.

SharePoint Guide last minute bargain

Well we are not too far away from 2009 folks. Apart from the digit change in the year my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide will also be going up in price from January 1. However, if you are quick you can still get it for the 2008 price of $239.99 from Karl Palachuk’s SMBBooks site.

 

Karl’s also done a blog post on the product just to let everyone know so there’ll be on excuses.

 

The January release is all ready to go with numerous updates for subscribers. I believe this what sets the Guide apart from other publications is the fact that it is a 12 month subscription in which you receive:

 

– Monthly updated documentation with regular additions.

– Over 1,000 pages of documentation covering many hard to find SharePoint topics including migration, database configuration and add-ons.

– Access to a free hosted SharePoint v3 site for testing and demonstration.

– DVD updates that not only includes all the documentation but also all the files you need to install SharePoint.

– Access to free email SharePoint support from myself.

– and more

 

For just the cost of a few hours work you’ll receive literally hundreds of hours that I’ve invested in this product documenting and testing everything inside. If you are working with, or plan to work with, Windows SharePoint on SBS2008 or SBS2003 then the Windows SharePoint Guide is going to save you hours of work.

 

So get it now for 2009 benefits at 2008 prices!

Making a good impression

I talked about a client referral system in my last blog post and have since found some things that help reinforce this. The first is not so much about a referral system but about rules for making a good impression. It provides seven practical suggestion on how to improve you chances of being remembered and regarded. One example is to respond to emails and voice mail within 24 hours.

 

Also linked in that document is an audio entitled Instituting a Client Appreciation Program, which is only about ten minutes long and really worth a listen. I liked the concept about how you may think that you are doing an excellent job but if you are only doing what you are paid for then that’s all you’ll be judged on. In this day and age, where finding another business to service any need is so easy you need to spend time developing a program that ensures you recognize your customers and drive them to refer you to more business.

 

In my experience with small businesses investments in traditional marketing like print media, email newsletters and so on don’t garner anywhere near the results of referrals. It is still worth pursuing some traditional marketing options but for my money you are much better off developing an effective client referral system as your number one marketing tool.

Poor marketing

I’ve become very aware of good referral systems after attending seminars about the topic at SMBNation. I’ve come across what I believe is a really poorly executed one.

 

As I have mentioned before, I am a member of a DVD library where DVD’s are sent to you on a regular basis in the mail. I feel it has a lot of benefits and is relatively cheap. Every now and again they send me these “free tickets” with the message:

 

Give these tickets out to your friends so they can enjoy up to 15 DVDs of their choice from our extensive movie catalogue.

 

What’s the problem with this you may ask, well my answer is, what’s in it for me? I don’t receive any discount, bonus or recognition for providing this offer to my friends. So the company is asking me to their marketing for them without any tangible benefit for myself.

 

Am I likely to oblige? I may if someone asked me specifically but I’m not going to be ACTIVELY promoting this product since I receive no benefit. It wouldn’t take much on their behalf to maybe offer me some sort of discount or prize from bringing on board new members. I don’t know if it is just me but honestly, I think most other people would feel the same.

 

It illustrates that even big companies get their marketing and referral system wrong. Think of all the money they must be wasting on attempt to generate new business and by leaving a simply reward off they are failing to make all the conversions they can. If you are developing a referral system, remember people must have a REASON to refer you and then they should RECEIVE some sort of personal reward. It doesn’t make sense to reward the whole business when only one individual inside a business has provided a referral does it? Why would they continue to refer you? You need to make the reward personal and memorable so it conditions their response to refer you again.

 

You can drive more business via referrals but to succeed, like everything else, you need to develop a system. You need to test and refine that system constantly if you ever hope for it to provide you business. If you simply hope that people will refer you to others then you chances are very slim indeed. You need to encourage people to ACTIVELY refer you, otherwise any offer is simply wasted.