3 Technology Tools to Supercharge Your Business Networking
Effective contact management lies at the core of every professional’s success. Turning strangers into friends and then into advocates is a foundational skill for creating opportunity for yourself and your organization. Here are a few tools that I suggest to simplify the process of collecting, organizing and leveraging your contacts.
In the world of social networking sites for business professionals, LinkedIn is the 800-pound gorilla. Based on the principle of six degrees of separation, the site allows you to create a professional identity (skills, work experience, etc.), connect with professionals you know and trust, and provides you the social data that you’ll need to connect with others. Personally, I’ve used LinkedIn to find prospects, identify partners, market my company and reach out successfully to complete strangers. I could spend hours explaining how to use LinkedIn to your advantage, but I’ll leave that to the marketing pros. Just take a moment, register and make LinkedIn a cornerstone of your relationship development strategy. Trust me, it will be worth your while.
CardMunch
It’s pretty safe to say that we all enjoy meeting new people and collecting business cards, but hate the process of entering business card information into our contact systems. In comes CardMunch. This nifty iPhone application allows you to snap a picture of a business card, submit it to the CardMunch system and voila! In less than 5 minutes you’ll have the complete contact data sent back to the app for you to save to your phone, send a follow up email and even connect with that contact on LinkedIn. It really helps you skip the tedium and get down to what matters; fostering connections. In lieu of an iPhone, Android users can get similar functionality with Google Googles or can wait until the Android version of CardMunch launches. For folks on other platforms, I would recommend the Shoeboxed service. It’s not free or quite as immediate, but it does the trick and a whole lot more.
LetterMeLater
I came across this service after the unceremonious demise of my previous favorite, DeferredSender. LetterMeLater
This post was originally published by Kevin V. Michael on the ICABA website.
How to Choose a SaaS Provider: 5 Things to Keep in Mind
Whether you’re replacing an existing software solution or starting from scratch, choosing a software provider is not a task to be taken lightly, and if you’re considering a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, there are some additional considerations to be mindful of.
SaaS typically refers to a software application that is hosted by the software company and for which to use you pay a monthly fee (Our good friends at Wikipedia have a more detailed description).
Once you start your search and selection process for a SaaS solution here are the five most important aspects to consider:
Pricing Model
Most SaaS solutions are priced per user per month, but some are priced by groups of users (eg. $50/month for 1-10 users) or some are priced based on how much information you’ll be storing in the system. For example a SaaS CRM may price based on the number of contacts stored in the system (eg. $10/month for up to 250 contacts). Be sure to take into account future growth, and how it will affect your costs. This provider prices by number users & features but also limits the number of users you can have in each tier.
Reliability
Besides not having to make a large up-front investment in software, another big advantage of SaaS is that you don’t have to invest in maintenance. The SaaS provider has the responsibility of ensuring that the service is available 24/7/365 or as close to that as possible. Read the terms of service before you commit any time or money to a solution. Companies usually explain their policy regarding up-time, so ensure that their policies work for your business model. Larger providers may have a status page, where you can check the current status of the service (whether it’s available or not) and you can view the history so you can evaluate how well the service performs. Have a look at the Google Apps Status Dashboard for example.
Integration
Another advantage of hosted services is that they’re generally accessible from any web browser anywhere but you may need integration with other applications or devices you use in your business. Maybe your company makes a product for which you provide support but for a fee, if you were evaluating a hosted help desk solution it would be important that it integrates with your billing application. This will minimize or ideally eliminate double data entry, and streamline your business operations. Some applications also provide mobile apps for accessing you data on your mobile device (phone or tablet), have a look at the integration’s this SaaS application provides.
Data Import/Export
If you’re moving from an existing application it’s very important that you can import your data into your new SaaS solution. Evaluate the options the provider gives you to import your data so you or your employees don’t spend endless hours on data re-entry. Also keep in mind that a SaaS solution may not be the best solution forever and if you ever need to move your data out of the system it should be relatively easy. Remember, the harsh reality is that the company you’re using as your SaaS provider may fold or be acquired in which case you don’t want your data locked in. This time-tracking SaaS application provides import/export options.
Training/Support
As always you want to make sure that someone will be there to help if and when you run into any issues. Evaluate the training and support options available. Some providers have online training and phone support while other may only provide FAQ’s and e-mail support, or you may have to pay to a higher level of support. This application only provides e-mail support make sure whatever your SaaS vendor provides is enough for you before you sign up.
Be diligent when choosing a software solution for your business and always try it first before you commit. When selecting a SaaS provider keep these 5 key items in mind when making your decision and you’ll have a much better experience.
Take Heed: 3 Tips For Making Technology Changes In Your Organization
The purpose of technology is to make our lives better and more convenient. The same goes for technology in business. So as the year gets underway and you undoubtedly look towards options to enhance the performance of your organization, I would like to offer a few thoughts on what you should consider before embarking on technology changes.
Tip#1: Prepare Your Organization For Change
There is no amount of technological advancement that can overcome our very human and natural resistance to change. In my experience, technology projects seldom fail because the solutions fail to work as advertised, but rather because of a failure in leadership to act. Before undertaking any technology, understand that the project is fundamentally about change to the way people in your organization perform their work. Projects affect business processes, systems and people. You must be willing to champion these projects by communicating with and involving the people who are affected by the change. Ignoring this reality results in systems that never get used, or used ineffectively by people who did not ‘buy-in’ to the vision.
Tip #2: Calculate the ROI
It may sound like a fairly standard business practice to consider cost/benefit and return on investment when making a decision, but you’d be surprised by how often this analysis is overlooked. Technology has to create leverage by making life for you or your employees easier, although these benefits are often hard to measure. It is absolutely essential for you to determine what a technology solution means to your team in terms of money, time or hassle saved. Does the solution increase productivity so you can do more with less? Does the solution create time for your team to focus on more valuable initiatives? Does it help you close more business? Does it mitigate risks that could have significant tangible or intangible losses? If you can’t answer yes to these questions and attach numbers to these answers, avoid justifying a purchase solely on the promise of its bells and whistles.
Tip #3: Seek Help
Whether you’re the CIO of a large enterprise or the owner of small home-based business, its important to take an inventory of the skills, knowledge and bandwidth available within your organization that will be necessary to effectively execute on a technology project. If it turns out that you will be deficient in any of those areas, you’ll need to revise your plans or seek external help. It’s always appealing to go it alone when you consider the additional cost, but I would argue that getting it done right is better than simply getting it done. Many a project has gone up in flames due to an unwillingness to incorporate skilled consultants or by forcing a project onto an overburdened IT staff.
