Looking for topics

I’m in the process of developing the next of my webinars and thought it would be good to offer a SharePoint questions and answers session. Now I could come up with what I believe are the most relevant questions around SharePoint but I think it would better if people out there let me know what they’d like to know about when it comes to SharePoint.

For that reason I’m asking for people to submit any SharePoint questions to me directly (director@ciaops.com). They can be on the installation, implementation. migration and even how to sell SharePoint solutions. As an added incentive, if you provide a question that I use in the webinar I’ll give you free access to both the live presentation as well as any recording of the event made.

So please have a think about what you would like to know about SharePoint and send it to me (director@ciaops.com). I’m sure that you won’t be the only one who wants to know the answer and if you come up with a good one you’ll get free access to the webinar!

I smell fear

In a bygone age Microsoft was able to dominate its rivals by bullying, blustering or buying. In the online services market that is no longer the case and in fact I believe that Microsoft is running scared, without a good strategy to complete with Google.

Why do I say this? Very recently I have been approach by a number of larger SMB resellers asking me about Google in the SMB market. I knew from the questions they were asking the questions hadn’t come from the reseller but from Microsoft. Here is the first piece of evidence I have about Microsoft not having a suitable strategy. It is asking its partners in the SMB space how to compete and they don’t know either! What can you expect? These partners are now ‘old world’. They are not part of the new hip iPod generation where everything is delivered instantaneously from the Internet. They make their money from traditional means like selling software on DVD and hardware in boxes. Not many resellers like this even have an online strategy, so what good is it asking them? None what so ever.

Microsoft has traditionally sold its products through resellers, not directly to customers (although this is also changing) but that has now created a millstone around Microsoft’s neck when it comes to online services. How can Microsoft sell online services when these resellers aren’t skilled enough in these applications? Why would they bother selling online services if they can’t see the revenue return? The answer is – they won’t, period.

Now let’s examine how Microsoft has chosen to compete with Google. They do so mainly via email services and Exchange Server online. But guess what? Email services are simply a utility now. Email is just a product that is expected, and if there isn’t much perceived difference between the offerings of Google and Microsoft (which there isn’t as email is email) then all that is left is a decision by the customer based on price. At the moment Google is the cheaper option and it wins. Guess what? If Microsoft drops it price so will Google. In fact Google could afford to give it away and there ain’t a damm thing Microsoft can do because it now faces an adversary who is as big and rich as they are. That’s something it has never had to face before.

As any good strategist will tell you, never fight an adversary where they are strongest, on ground not of your choosing or at a time that doesn’t suit you. In summary, attack an adversary where they are weakest not where they are strongest. Is Microsoft doing this? Nope. They go after Google in search ( al la Bing ). They go after Google via Exchange online. Dumb, dumb, dumb. If they stopped and thought about things they’d realize they have the perfect weapon with which to compete with Google in the online space.

Not surprisingly I believe this weapon to be SharePoint. Not only is it a product that is far more feature rich and mature than Google Sites, it provides superior collaboration with products that most clients already have on their desktop like, Outlook, Word, Excel and OneNote. SharePoint has the flexibility to solve many common business problems. The value of SharePoint is what you can create with it. The value of SharePoint is that you can solve REAL business problems without overlaying complex technology and increasing costs. The value of SharePoint is that it is simple to use and implement. Yet I’m sad to say these benefits fail to resonate with most people (except fanatics like me of course).

If you ask most Microsoft resellers what SharePoint is, you’d be lucky to find some that knew and even luckier if you found some that have used it. However, if you take the email component out of Microsoft BPOS because it is simply a utility now, as I have discussed above, what is left? SharePoint. But how many resellers are comfortable selling that? Not many. So perhaps Microsoft should be promoting SharePoint more to its resellers and customers. Maybe it should be showing everyone the real benefits you can achieve with just a browser and the even greater benefits when you combine it with Microsoft Office.

Alas, it doesn’t seem to me that Microsoft appreciate this and they are too busy trying to go toe to toe with Google and that is simply dumb. For probably the first time they now face an adversary who is pretty evenly matched with them and yet probably, has the edge in online services. Microsoft have yet to implement an effective competitive strategy and in fact seem to be actually making their situation worse, if the BPOS product events I have recently attended are any indication (where they are pleading with resellers to sell Microsoft BPOS). If they are not careful the smell of fear is going to turn into a reek real soon!

Vehicles and drivers

The aim of most car manufacturers is to win a Formula One motor racing championship. Now, there is no way they can achieve this without a vehicle (let’s just consider the rest of the team part of the vehicle for the time being) and a driver. Both items are vital to achieve this aim.

If either of these components don’t work or don’t work well together then there is little chance of winning the championship. You can have a great driver and lose because of a lousy car and likewise, a fabulous car and a lousy driver. So either one could be a limiting factor.

Lets now translate this to a business. If the business is going to achieve the dreams of an owner it needs to not only have a successful driver but also a vehicle. If a business is not achieving the goals of the owner then these are the first two places you need to start looking for a solution.

Firstly ask yourself, is the driver the right person? If you are running your business, are you in fact the right person to be doing that? If you are also the person doing the customer service, accounting, marketing, etc are you the best person to do that? The less a driver has to worry about the more they can focus on getting the best performance from the vehicle. That’s why they have a team of people to help them. Someone to look after the engine, the tyres, the fuel and so on. At the speeds formula one cars travel you certainly don’t want to have a driver worrying about those things do you. Isn’t a business similar? If you’re driving it and you have lots to worry about, aren’t you are going to have trouble keeping it on track aren’t you? Can you perhaps do better job somewhere else in the team?

Now consider the vehicle. Is the business (or occupation) you’re currently in really going to allow you to achieve what excites you? Is the business (or occupation) going to provide you with the end result you are looking for? Win the world championship if you may? Like I said before, you may be the most brilliant business person (or driver) but with a hobbled and limited business (or vehicle) you’re only going to be frustrated aren’t you?

So if the driver, and let’s assume it is you, needs to improve what can be done? You must continually work to improve your skills, your knowledge and experience. To survive the rigours of driving at such speeds one thing Formula One drivers need to be is pretty fit. That’s not something that just happens, it is not something that gets easier the older you get and it is not something you get while driving in a race. It is something that needs to worked at outside a race but ultimately helps a driver perform better. Let me ask you, in relation to your business (or position), what are you doing outside of that to improve your skills, enhance you experience and knowledge?

If, however, the vehicle is the issue what are the alternatives? You could tune it but maybe it would be better to abandon the vehicle altogether for something else that better suits the track and the driver. What’s the use of driving around in something that doesn’t work for you? It is only going to cause greater frustration and thereby impede performance and the ultimate goal even more. Ask yourself, is this the best vehicle for me to win ‘my championship’? If not, then maybe a change of vehicles is in order.

I feel there are a lot of similarities between Formula One racing and business. The teams that manage to get everything together win championship but they don’t achieve this by chance. They closely examine both the driver and vehicle all the time to determine whether they have ‘the winning combination’. If not, they don’t simply settle, they make changes because they want to WIN.

If you’re not looking to win ‘your championship’ then you’d be better off heading to the pits and retire. Let the real racers get on with their jobs.

Dumb businesses

Most businesses in this day and age are constantly looking at ways they can grow their sales and generate more revenue from new customers. In many cases this total fixation with ‘new’ sales is blinding them to collecting ‘easy pickings’, and in some cases may even be driving business away.

What do I mean? Let me give you an example from my own experience. I wanted to buy something, so I contact the business via email and obtained all the details. I tell them to send me an invoice so I can do an electronic funds transfer. Sale complete right? Nope. Firstly, there are no banking details on the invoice I received. I then troll through the lengthy email and find the account details, but guess what? They’re wrong. So now I gotta email them back and I HAVE TO ASK for the correct details. Can you see the issue?

It is almost like they are TRYING to make it hard for me to purchase from them. Wouldn’t you think that the most logical thing would be to put the transfer details on the invoice? Failing that, don’t they have a standard payment document that lists all the payment methods, including the right funds transfer details?

How many things like this are you overlooking in your business? It all comes down to building effective procedures. If you take the time to create a payment method document you can send it out every time you need to and you know it is right every time. As I have mentioned many, many times in this blog people are so happy to waste their time repeating low end tasks, duplicating information and promoting errors yet they constantly complain they are too ‘busy’. A businesses failing to conduct itself professionally, especially at the transaction moment of the sale, tells me a whole lot about how well that business generally operates. In some respects it may even warrant me taking my business elsewhere, because if they can’t do that what else aren’t they doing properly?

So rather than investing significant amounts of time constantly taking the rough road looking for new sales, have you examined your own processes to ensure that they are as efficient as possible? Have you ensured that it is as easy as possible for your existing customers (i.e. those who ALREADY pay you money) to keep giving you more money? Have you asked them whether you can make their dealings with you simpler?

Remember, what I’m saying here is making the process easier for money coming into your business not necessarily what suits you best. You want to make the whole process of getting paid as quick as possible. This means you need to look at it through the customer’s eyes, not your own. Remember the more friction there is in a process, not only the slower the process becomes but also the more heat it generates (i.e. customer frustration).

So, spend the time ensuring your gears are as oiled as possible before commencing on the great quest for more sales, because greater revenues may be just a tweak away.

Google-juice

Everyday I’m finding more and more benefit from Twitter as method of promoting my business. I am always intrigued when I get new Twitter followers who ‘protect their tweets’. Ah why? Are you saying something you don’t want everyone to know? If you are doing that, why are are doing it on the Internet? Why are you also doing it on with a third party who effectively owns whatever you post up there? It just doesn’t make sense.

After recently reading the book “What Would Google Do” I have a much better appreciation for the need to generate as much ‘Google-juice’ around my business as possible. Twitter is an excellent method of doing exactly that. Don’t believe me well I’ve just type ‘robert crane’ into Google and look what appears:

It is probably a bit hard to read but I have a Google entry on the first page thanks to my postings in Twitter (currently the 6th entry!). I don’t think I could every achieve this with any of my web sites or blog but thanks to having an open Twitter account I’m getting some excellent Google-juice. I think this is pretty good given I’m up against a very famous (or infamous name-sake).

There are plenty of reasons for keep information private and I think the best advice that I could give is that if you want to keep it private don’t post in on the Internet no matter what form. And for heavens sake don’t post it to Facebook. Conversely, if you want to promote yourself or you business take the advice from “What Would Google Do” and make your information available to Google to index at all times.

Views on YouTube reach 300,000

Almost exactly 3 years ago, while working at Saturn Alliance, I created a YouTube channel to post a number of technology videos. About 12 months ago I created a new CIAOPS YouTube channel and stopped posting anything to the Saturn Alliance account. Yet as you can see the Saturn Alliance account has now surpassed 300,000 views, which I find truly amazing. Why? Because I honestly believed that very few people would be interested in what I posted, but clearly due to the breadth of the Internet I was wrong. It is sort of like this blog, which I can’t honestly believe anyone except my mother actually reads, but to those who do I say thanks.

While recently attending SMB Nation 2009 I was in a session about using social media tools like YouTube inside a technology business. I went along because I felt I really needed to learn more but as it turns out people where still struggling to understand how they could use technologies like YouTube. The experience I shared with them was how I came to creating the Saturn Alliance account.

Saturn Alliance had always struggled to provide users with effective information about their systems, to allow them to do more for themselves and therefore save some money rather than calling for support all the time. I had created plenty of documentation including pictures and step by step procedures but users just never seemed to pay attention to anything that was written down. The most common process I found users continually struggled with was rebooting a SBS 2003 server. Normally, I had to talk them through the process which, in reality, is very straight forward. This created a huge amount of frustration on the part of the business and myself as I was always being interrupted over and over to hand hold the same users through the same process.

It was clear that most people are far more responsive to video rather than text so I therefore created a simple video about the process of rebooting a SBS 2003 server. This worked a treat, but typically when a user needed to reboot I had to email them the video. Of course they never saved the video in a place for easy reference which meant I had to continually email the video over and over again. This did not make any sense as it was almost like them simply calling up. The solution was to post the video on YouTube.

Now all I had to do was email the user a link to the video which they could watch immediately. Problem solved, and I created a few more to help customers, thinking no more about what was possible beyond this. Because the YouTube videos were public I soon found quite a few people not only watching the videos I had created but also commenting and contacting me. That got me thinking, was I missing an opportunity here? So I started experimenting with branding the videos and was amazed at the results.

The end result was 47 videos in 2 years with the Saturn Alliance account and a growing number of videos at the newer CIAOPS YouTube channel. I am pleased to say that I still receive lots and lots of feedback on what I have created and continue to welcome any suggestions. So if you haven’t see what’s up there, take a look and let me know what you think.

To those businesses who only see YouTube as something that needs to be blocked I’d say think again. I’d say start looking at it as an opportunity you can exploit to actively promote your skills and your business. I know that I do and see it as a very important piece of an overall marketing strategy going forward.

SharePoint Operations Guide on Facebook

I have to admit that I’m still grappling with the multitude of social networking sites that you can avail yourself of, but probably one of the top few is Facebook. I already have a Facebook page, and feel free to friend me, but I wanted to create something to help keep people up to date with the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide and SharePoint in general. After doing a bit of research the best option seems to be to create a Facebook page because it gets indexed by Google. So that’s exactly what I’ve now done and you’ll find it here :

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Windows-SharePoint-Operations-Guide/167213188332

It doesn’t have a huge amount of information there yet and I am still trying to learn the best ways to deliver my message through this but if you are on Facebook then I’d appreciate you becoming a fan. Not only that, I’d appreciate any feedback on what to do and how to do it because as I said, I’m no expert with Facebook.

I’ll be interested to see how this Facebook page compares to the other Windows SharePoint Operations Guide group I created over on Linkedin, which can be found here:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1922207/

They both do similar and different functions but I get the impression that the Facebook page may be available to a wider audience.

It will be interesting to see which medium works best. So if you are a member of Facebook or Linkedin then I’d urge you to sign up to the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide and help me work out which is the best method of getting SharePoint information out to people.

Free consulting time with SharePoint Guide

For the month of November, if you subscribe to my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (www.wssops.com) you’ll receive 60 minutes of free remote support time to use in any way you want. You could use it for in house training or client demonstrations, it doesn’t matter it’s up to you how you choose to use it.

As well as the 60 minutes of free support you’ll also receive all the normal benefits of subscribing to the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide:

– Over 1,500 pages of technical information on Windows SharePoint.

– A DVD with over 4GB of documents, white papers, videos, and files on Windows SharePoint

– A free hosted SharePoint web site

– Monthly updates

– Monthly email newsletter

– and more

As I have recently announced, the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide will be expanding to include areas much as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). It will also start shortly including information about the soon to be released SharePoint 2010, so if you need information about SharePoint than look no further than the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide.

For more information about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide visit the web site www.wssops.com or send me an email (director@ciaops.com).