The failure occurs when either the business owner/management assumes the "computer guy" understands his business - from a strategic standpoint, or when the business owner/management is certain the "computer guy" doesn’t understand his business and therefore excludes him from the strategic conversations.

In the role of Virtual CIO/Technology Advisor, I provide the strategic go-between for business management and IT departments or technical vendors.   Bridging that gap can result a huge cost savings and reduce future headaches.

Case-Study:
A client of mine was getting ready to initiate a series of system-wide upgrades - both hardware and software.  I was brought in to evaluate the vendor proposals for completeness & competitiveness - did they achieve the desire results.

However, as I sat there discussing the business objectives, current challenges, and business growth plans, the VP of Finance and the Controller (charged with managing the upgrade and approving the purchases) both commented that my conversations with them were the first where we started to identify their business objectives.

The vendors had identified current technology and for the most part were quoting/proposing upgrades to the existing infrastructure - based on past technology, not an future business growth.

In the case of this upgrade, we discovered nearly $100,000 of unnecessary purchases and by the time we had re-evaluated their strategic plans, we had reduced spending by nearly $150,000 and created a 2 year strategic plan.

It isn’t really the cost-savings that is most profound, it is the fact that the purchases they made actually had a value-impact on their organization.  The net effect is greater than the cost savings.

They way I explain it is that they had been given a grocery list but did not have a recipe.   In fact, what I told them at the outset was that I could not promise them we would reduce cost - only that the cost we identify would be part of a recipe; they would be purchases of strategic value.

Are you creating grocery list without a recipe?

Wrote a blog post over at IT Toolbox about digital communications.

I am starting to compile some ideas as part of a presentation on effective communications tools and strategies for business.

If you have specific ideas you think should be addressed, comment here or at IT Toolbox.

In particular, data analysis, decision support and automated reporting systems, workflow & business process re-engineering, and document assembly are my greatest areas of passion.

They form the crux of what Kreative Knowledge provides our clients.

We focus on utilizing tools that are readily available for most organizations.  Microsoft’s Office Suite (Access, Word, Excel, Powerpoint - and other apps) include Visual-basic for Applications (VBA).  VBA is the underlying programming language to Microsoft Office.  It goes far beyond the simple macro languages of the past.

VBA’s ability to interact with external applications using .NET and other technologies, allowing it to tie-into a variety of internal database systems, provides a tool that if often unused or underutilized in most organizations.

At Kreative Knowledge, we believe the simplest solution is often the best.  The ready-made tools that are already built-into Microsoft Office provide a rapid development and integration platform for automating all types of business process.

For instance, if your organization pulls data from an accounting or sales system and then creates Excel sheets for reporting or analysis, it is very likely that the manual process you go through to create those spreadsheets can be fully-automated.

This streamlines your reporting and removes costly errors and manual labor.

If you would like to find out more about the possibilities of automating your business processes and reporting, contact Kreative Knowledge.

The client actually received a blank spreadsheet each ordering period, filled in their order, and sent it back.  The problem was it left too many decisions to the customer.  Mistakes in data resulted in numerous questions, mistakes, and customer calls.

Here is why technology is really amazing.  She sent me the sheet, we discussed, via a Skype call, what they needed, I created a simple proof of concept in about an hour, and then shared my desktop and demonstrated where I was going.

After some modification and process questions, they had a new solution, using Excel lookup values on a hidden sheet, protected fields, and checks and balances to ensure the client’s order was correct when submitted.

So far, they have had a 95% reduction in customer calls and have had a 100% reduction in errors.

For me, removing manual and tedious labor is a passion.

The fact that tools exist that allow me to quickly assess and then demonstrate a solution - all remote - means I can save my client’s money while providing amazing results.

Setting up data validation using a lookup list is extremely simple.  This tutorial uses named ranges.  If you are unfamiliar with named ranges, watch this short video first.

 
Download the higher quality
Windows Media Version here

If you have questions or comments, leave them here on the blog site or email me.

Therefore, let’s call this an Email Communication Strategy…

After reading Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Work Week, and having conversations with Laura about overall effectiveness - and my general inability to concentrate due to repeated interruptions, I’ve decided to cut the digital umbilical chord - and not check email on a constant basis.

I’ve included a rather lengthy addition to my email signature, explaining the change and how to best contact me - and when.  Hint: contact me via email, like always, unless this is a critical, must-be-answered now type of things.

Must be answered now is not a narcissistic, “I’m very important, answer me right away.” situation.  You are, without a doubt, very important to me.  However, email is not for conversation - particularly back and forth exchanges with no useful outcome.  To understand this more fully, read Ferriss’ book or check out this blog entry.

By the way, I fully understand and acknowledge that those interruptions were allowed by me - they are not the senders fault.

My basic strategy is to check email 2 times a day.  However, I also understand that this is a fairly dramatic change from my prior pattern.  Therefore, I will provide a weaning period - between now - 11/20/2007 - and 12/1/2007.

Technorati Tags: email, productivity, consulting, communicaitons, ferriss, efficiency

Title: The Professional’s (non-technical) Step-by-Step Guide To Blogging & Podcasting for Free Using Wordpress
Date: Tuesday, October 30th (10/30/2007)
Time: 12:00pm - 1:15pm Eastern Standard time
Price: $149.00 - regular price ($50 discount for early registration)
- additional discounts available for 5 or more tickets.

If you are a business professional, marketing professional, or small business owner, and have wanted to know the how and why of blogging - from a business value (non-technical) perspective, this webinar is for you.

75 minutes to proficiency – a de-jargonized, business-focused workshop to get you started RIGHT AWAY – without any programming!

At the completion of this workshop, you will:

• Understand RSS (subscription & syndication);
• Setting up your Wordpress blog;
• Hosting your Wordpress blog;
• Customizing your look with free themes;
• How to use customizable widgets – for added functionality
• Publishing audio & video content and making it available for iPod/device download
• Includes the following downloadable documents:
  (emailed to you after the webinar)
  • Step-by-Step Guide To Wordpress (20 pages);
  • An Audio & Video Publishing Primer (10 pages) – 10 important questions answered before you ask them.
  • A text file with HTML customizations you can modify and use – and an explanation of where to use them & what they do.

ABOUT WORDPRESS:
Wordpress is a free blogging software with powerful capabilities.  While this workshop uses Wordpress, the features covered are largely the same for all blogging platforms.

This workshop is for the business professional.  You do not have to be a web professional or techno-genius to get started with professional content today.  This webinar answers the real questions about how to get your blog going – without any programming.

About your instructor:
Matthew Moran is the founder of Kreative Knowledge, an office automation and productivity consultancy.  Kreative Knowledge focuses on helping organizations use Microsoft Office and other applications to generate 100%, 500%, 1,000% and greater productivity gains through more effective training and through built-in automation features.

He is also the author of The IT Career Builder’s Toolkit and numerous articles on business, technology, and professional development.  He is the co-founder of The Technology Pro – a business and technology training & education company.

1) Information:
The storage and retrieval of information for analysis and decision support.

2) Automation:
The automation of the delivery of a product or service.

I focus on the latter - although much of my automation takes the form of Executive Management & Reporting Systems.

Please read The Role & Value of Technology.  Also, take a look at the Kreative Knowledge brochure.