78 Ways to Control Your Business Costs

Some busines owners see these uncertain economic times as tough roads ahead, while others see this as a perfect opportunity to get out in front of their competition, and truly help their customers weather this storm. 

While there are good arguments on both sides of the economy issue, one thing is common to all businesses: controlling your business costs is paramount to surviving in good, or bad times. I found this article on the website of Inside CRM, a site related to CRM, or Customer Relationship Management Software. It applies to all companies, I think. 

Read the entire article here: 78 Ways to Control Your Business Costs 

Be sure to come back here to post your thoughts! 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

WiFi On the Plane?

It looks like WiFi is finally available while you are on your flight. American Airlines has been testing a new WiFi service from GoGoInflight which allows you to get high speed Internet access (for a fee, of course) while you are cruising at 30,000 feet. From most reports I have read, the service works well, and is fairly reliable. So, now you can send and receive those emails, download that important presentation you forgot to bring with you, or just surf the web.

The service is priced at $12.95 for now. No reports on whether the connection will slow down if more users login on the same flight. It will be interesting to see if only higher level executives utilize the service to work while enroute, or if companies will now expect employees to get more work done while they are getting paid to travel. I expect other airlines to quickly follow suit.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this. Should employees be reasonably expected to work while flying on company business now? Do you see it as an intrusion on the other passengers?

To your success,

Tim

Is My Network Ready for Small Business Server 2008?

With the announcement that Microsoft is launching SBS 2008 on November 12, 2008 it might be a good time to address a few house cleaning items you will need to get in order if you are planning this upgrade. 

If you are currently using SBS 2003 Premium, and using Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 (ISA 2004) as your firewall (ISA 2004 is included in the premium version), there is one very important difference in SBS 2008. ISA is not included any longer. What does this mean to companies upgrading? Simply put, you no longer have a firewall. You will have to purchase either a hardware or software based firewall to protect your data. 

There are pros and cons of both types of firewalls, and I will discuss some differences in a later post. For now, companies planning their upgrade should either start researching firewall solutions that fit their needs, or begin discussions with their IT services provider on the subject. If you contact your provider, and they have no idea what you are talking about, I would run, not walk, out of that relationship. I recommend you choose a Microsoft Small Business Specialist, commonly referred to in the industry with the designation SBSC. These Microsoft partners have gone through testing that proves their knowlege of Microsoft server products in geneal, and Microsoft Small Business Server in particular. They will have specific recommendations on this subject. 

 To Your Success, 

 Tim

What a Connected World We Live In

You have to be careful what you say nowadays. A case in point revolves around a post I recently made on a blog that tracks the industry my company is in. I was commenting on the site about a particular business model we use and how it has simplified our billing, etc. Another poster asked me what software we used to track some specifics. I replied back with the name of the software, but added a caveat that we were in the middle of implementing a different solution.

Wow! You would think it was a presidential press release! Within 12 hours, I had 2 phone calls, and several emails from upper level vice presidents of the company we were dropping. And this company has over 20,000 users (I'm told).

There are a few interesting lessons to be learned here, I think. First, if you don't want anyone to know what you are doing, don't email or post anything regarding the information you are trying to keep from the public. While this particular information regarding our software change is by no means top secret, I really didn't need this particular interuption from our business of providing excellent customer service. Secondly, you never know where your comments will end up, no matter how benign they may seem. A few little comments started a firestorm from upper level management in a company much larger than mine.

So, the moral is, don't post anything you don't want known. ANYWHERE. Social networking performs at the speed of the Internet.

To your success,

Tim