Collaboration Insights Blog

Understanding and Navigating the Information Highway via Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Understanding and Navigating the Information Highway via Web 2.0

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Ten Thousand Homes - Making a Difference in Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Taking a few minutes today to draw some attention to a group of people who are making a tangible difference in the lives of AIDS orphans in South Africa. It's well known that Africa is hit hard by the AIDS epidemic... and the ones hardest hit are the children left behind. Ten Thousand Homes is one organization that is taking action to impact a nation!

However, this is not a Sally Struthers infomercial... this is about a group that seeks to provide HOPE to these kids... and are actually doing it! I was talking to one of their US directors this morning who reported that they are currently feeding 500 kids a day in South Africa. They are also building care centers within the nation that provide HOMES for some of these kids.

You won't see any rock stars promoting them... yet. You will find a group that is not willing to"trade lasting impact for immediate popularity."

Considering an Office Move? Try this Checklist

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:59:00 +0000

If you're busting at the seams of your current office, the thought of moving to a bigger or better space may have crossed your mind. With many indicators pointing to the economy beginning to recover, now could be the perfect time for just such a consideration. There are some real potential bargains in the commercial real estate market to be had.

So, if this has even entered your mind, there are loads of questions that are likely running through your mind. How long should you allow yourself? Have I thought of everything? Is there anything I've missed? These questions can often cause folks to put aside consideration of a move. However, as Stephen King, CEO of Growthforce, said when I spoke with him yesterday, "It's not rocket science." He should know. His previous company had 7 offices before being sold to Administaff in 2005. The key is just having a coordinated effort with defined roles, and someone overseeing the process.

In the case of Growthforce, Collaboration Insights is simply playing a role in the bigger picture, while his quite capable office manager is handling the overall project management. However, for many small business owners, the task of moving offices can still seem overwhelming. If this is the case, Collaboration Insights can provide complete project management oversight to your upcoming move if you so desire.

Regardless of whether you bring in an outsourced project manager, or decide to go it on your own, I've posted a fairly comprehensive checklist below.

For you move veterans, feel free to fill in anything you feel I've overlooked.

	Office Move Plan
	Responsible	Due Date	% Complete	Comments
	4-12 MONTHS PRIOR TO MOVE DAY
Create a master checklist of tasks
Choose a move coordinator
Choose a real estate broker
Meet with the building manager
Decide on the layout of the new location
Set budget
Choose the move day
Communicate to employees
Identify major tenant improvement needs
Start choosing contractors
Obtain necessary permits
Order new phone and fax numbers

	2-4 MONTHS PRIOR TO MOVE DAY
	*LOGISTICAL*
Hire Movers
Order signage for new location
Hire commercial cleaning service
Order change of address labels
	*TELECOM & IT*
Order Internet Access
Evaluate and upgrade your phone system
Order additional phone lines
Order long distance service or VoIP service
Evaluate server room needs
	*FURNISHINGS*
Design office space and layout
Order systems furniture
Order desks
Order chairs

	1-2 MONTHS PRIOR TO MOVE DAY
	*LOGISTICAL*
Assign office space
Get rid of the junk
Send change of address to all vendors
Send change of address to all customers
Update your web site
	*OFFICE EQUIP & SERVICES*
Get Insurance Quotes for New Space
Arrange for copier move or buy new equipment
Order monitored alarm system
closed circuit television
Order keys, access cards
Arrange for office coffee service
Order vending machines
Order checks and update financial records
	1 MONTH PRIOR TO MOVE DAY
	Preparing existing equipment and supplies
Inventory existing computers
Inventory and tag existing furniture
Store property that will not be moved
Obtain moving crates/cartons
Pack up common areas
Tag all wall items and move to central location
	Preparing the new office
Build out new office
Install systems furniture
Install phone system
Assign new phone numbers, extensions
Order utilities
	Other tasks
Notify Post Office of change of address
Order new stationery

	WEEK OF MOVE DAY
	Getting ready to leave the old office
Pack up desks, personal spaces
Back up computers
Take down systems furniture
Empty, defrost and clean refrigerator
	Final prep for the new office
Map out the new location and label everything appropriately
Inspect the new building
Reserve freight elevators and loading docks
Distribute new keys, cards


	MOVING DAY & BEYOND
	Moving day essentials
Post coded signs in new office for movers
Protect main moving paths
Move plants
Set up a "Lost and Found"
Clean out old office

	After the Move
Collect old keys, cards
Replace office art
Periodically visit old office to pick up mail
Schedule security, phone training

5 Step Telecom Audit - Maximizing Communications Dollars

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Telecom is typically one of the top 5 expenses in any organization. However, staying on top of these expenses is much more involved than most small businesses have the time or resources to take on. The reason behind this difficulty is because the communications industry is constant in one area: CHANGE. Pricing plans, promotions, and new technology change the telecommunications environment virtually every day. It’s not uncommon for a carrier to reduce per-minute costs or fixed monthly costs and not inform customers of the new pricing structure.

The good news for small business is that once you do the work to clean up, the ongoing maintenance is less daunting thanks to tighter controls and informed processes going forward. A detailed telecom audit can yield up to 50% savings, while a more realistic target would be in the 12%-35% range. Even at the low end of the range, it’s well worth the time invested. The objective of this article is to supply you with a common sense approach to audit your communications bill.

Step 1: Create an Inventory

At this stage of the game, keep it straightforward and simple. Don’t worry about the technical jargon found on the bill. There will be plenty of time for that in a later step. The key components here are to make sure you know exactly what you have in the following 3 areas:

Voice - Local, Long Distance, Toll Free, etc.
Data - Internet, Private Lines, Wide Area Networks
Wireless - Devices and plan information

It’s good to be as detailed as you can be at this point on these components. For instance, if you know that you’re using DSL for data, what are the upload/download speeds? Again, if you don’t know up front, you’ll find it later. The reason to mark it here is so that it will make it easier to spot when you’re looking at the bill.

Step 2: How do you use your services?

This is a very critical step in determining if your current services are a proper fit for what your business needs. Provided below are some sample questions you may want to answer. Feel free to add questions to this list, as your answers will not only provide information on the efficiency of utilization, but can also be used to help devise a perfect world scenario for your communication strategy.

What is the approximate ratio of incoming/outbound calls?
How many calls am I likely to have going on at any one given time?
Do I have specific timeframes when call volume or web traffic spikes?
Do I have high concentrations of LD calls going to a specific area? to a specific location?
How does my organization utilize the internet for business purposes?
Does my organization frequently upload or download large files (video, music, graphics, etc.) to/from the internet?
What departments do we pay wireless costs for?
Are wireless expenses reimbursed, or corporately liable?

Again, this list is not comprehensive. It’s a good start to get you thinking.

Step 3: Match the Invoice to Your Inventory

For this portion of the exercise, it’s best to take 3-4 months of bills to compile. Fewer than 3 months can skew results if there are any valid prorated charges that show up on a given month’s invoice, while more than 4 months just becomes an insurmountable pile of information without really any added benefit.

You will want to create a column listing each individual charge component on your bill. To the best of your ability, you will want to organize the information based on service types and charge types within each service (example: Inbound Interstate LD) Once you have a complete list from the 3 invoices, you can now begin the process of matching inventory from Step 1 to the columns in this “bump” sheet.

The fallout that doesn’t match at first glimpse will likely contain a lot of the technical jargon that we must now try to make sense of. The good news here is that Google is fast and free! For instance, one of the charges you may see is called EUCL. A search on google yields over 130,000 results, with the top entry defining the “End User Common Line” charge without even having to click into the site.

Any charge components you are unable to figure out can go to a question sheet. At the end of the entire exercise, you will want to have your account rep clearly explain what each of these charges are.

Step 4: Analyze

At this point, you may want to take a step back and try to clear your head of all the fresh acronyms. With a fresh cup of coffee, get your mindset back to first two steps: What do I have & how do I use it?

Approaching this step in the right mindset will help you quickly identify which charges are just facts of life on your current plan and which ones can be done away with. Ask yourself these questions:

Were there charges for features on the bill that I don’t recognize? Or, maybe I recognize them, but can’t remember what they are really useful for. (Example: Remote Access to Call Forwarding on a circuit is helpful for disaster recovery planning, but is it a necessary component for your communications strategy?)
Are there any errors on the bills?
Do I have unused lines or circuits?
Am I paying unnecessary fees? (late fees, Directory Assistance, data or texting usage, etc)
What am I not thinking of? (Example: If I have 25 employees, but only have 5 lines occupied at any given time, do I need to dedicate a full line to each individual? Or would it be just as effective to pay for 6 or 7 dedicated lines that can be shared by 25 extensions, freeing up the remaining bandwidth for data?)

Step 5: Making Sense of it All

This final step should outline the audit’s findings into a useful report that will enable your next move. This report should include:

A cost model defining voice, data, Internet access, wireless, etc., as a percentage of total, percentage by location, etc.
All the inventory telephone and circuit numbers, baseline costs, annualized costs, trending, inventory descriptions with costs, and some basic statistics (e.g., total calls and minutes) by location, destination, and averaging. For example, a report might show that office A has 10,000 minutes of interstate calling, 5,000 intrastate, and 2,000 international, with 7,000 calls per month.
Fallout report that spells out which services/features can be cut from your current configuration, as well as lists services/features that could be added to provide a more efficient use of your communication spend.

Armed with this information, you’re now ready to approach your carrier to reimburse you for any errors uncovered and to put together a fresh pricing proposal for your services, including any configuration changes/suggestions. You will also want to find out what other carriers are available in your area, and engage them to provide pricing for a solution fit for your business.

If you would like assistance in any aspect of your audit process, let us know. We can collaborate to insure that you maximize the impact of every communications dollar you spend. Give us a call at 888.851.2243 or email at info@collaborationinsights.com.

The Launch!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:12:00 +0000

FINALLY!

Collaboration Insights has launched! We are hitting the ground running with information and services designed to directly impact the bottom line of small businesses. Our mission is to be a lifeline for small business. While we're not an expert at every process, we know those who are... and we're not too proud to lean on other's wisdom.

With that said, we would love to glean from any insight you have to offer on any of the topics discussed here.

Kicking things off will be a new whitepaper on Communications Cost Containment that will be posted this week. Coming soon will be one on taking your office paperless. Please let me know if you have additional topics that affect your day to day you would like to see addressed here!

Welcome to the Darkside!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Well, I've finally taken the leap... a little over a week ago, I took the plunge and bought my first Mac. It was not a decision to be entered into lightly. Of course, the creative side of me has been salivating over Macs for quite some time... however, having worked in the enterprise space, I've been subjected to endless advice from the IT departments about why Macs are just not a good fit for the business world. When you filter that advice with the thought of an IT department looking at a machine that seldom breaks down or attracts a virus, it's easy to see how self preservation sets in for corporate America. Also, in today's economic environment, it's easy to see why the pricetag drives away a lot of folks doing the financial decision making.

However, as an entrepreneur starting a new venture, I'm at a place to be able to determine the platform my business is going to run on. So, after much over-analyzing, and posing the question to my online community of Facebook & Twitter, I took all the input and caved to my own selfish desire to go against the grain.

So far, I haven't really run into any of the dreaded roadblocks that are supposedly waiting for me in the non-pc world. Granted, it's a bit of a pain to have to re-learn all of the short cuts on the Mac that were second nature on the pc... but in the end, I'm finding the output to be far superior on the Mac.

Also, as the entrepreneur in a new venture, I would just as soon have the genius bar as my IT department for a while. :-)

I am, however, still interested in hearing further input on this whole Mac vs PC battle. Especially since, I don't think the battlefield is finished being developed. Both Macs & PC makers have taken great steps toward gaining a second look from past die-hards. Mac has really stepped up their business application toolkit, and with the parallel windows option, it's hard to imagine why a Mac wouldn't be a fit in any situation. However, with the current price consciousness in the marketplace, it's becoming more difficult for Apple to maintain that Total Cost of Ownership over time is similar to that of a PC. Especially with Netbooks starting at around $200, there's really not a comparable "basic" alternative for a business to outfit it's workstations.

What are your thoughts on this whole debate?

Entrepreneurs Can Change the World

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:28:00 +0000

Check out this re-branding of a company called Grasshopper. Simply brilliant!

This commercial was followed by the company (Grasshopper) sending via FedEx, 5000 chocolate covered grasshoppers! Check out http://Grasshopper.com/inthenews to see the reaction they got.

Are you CRAZY?! Starting a Business in Today's Market

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:13:00 +0000

It seems like anytime an entrepreneur decides to launch out on their own, there's no shortage of folks to inquire about the mental health of said entrepreneur. However, in today's economy, it seems like this sentiment is on hyper-drive!

The good news is, when the time is right, these challenges serve to strengthen your resolve, and spur you on to finish what you've started. Also, because there is power in the words we say, the more we speak the vision, the more real it becomes and the more folks get behind it.

I've linked to a post on the CSO Online blog on this very premise... if the idea is good, the time is right to launch a company. It offers insights from several entrepreneurs that have successfully launched in tough times.

Here's some nuggets from the post to consider for those of you thinking of or in the middle of a startup right now...

"when the going gets tough, the posers go home" Doug Camplejohn, Mi5 Founder & serial entrepreneur
"It's not about the externalities. It is really about believing in ourselves and the validity of the technology" Aaron Turner, Co-Founder of RFinity on the premise that if the product has promise for profit, it will find a way to market.

Also, I was recently meeting with one of the top executives of Administaff to discuss Collaboration Insights. While we were meeting, he reminded me that Administaff started during a terrible economic environment in 1986. We now know that it has since gone on to create the PEO market.

Please share some of your favorite "insight" received in response to starting your own business.

Technorati Code

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:17:00 +0000

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Introduction to the Blogosphere

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Vance (Topher)) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:22:00 +0000

While this blog is brand new, this is simply the re-introduction of Topherthoughts to the world. Earlier forays into the world of blogging were of a more personal nature. Naturally, with the advent of Facebook, that became the more preferred way of keeping in touch with friends. As a consequence, the more indepth thoughts on the blog were left way behind.

In the mean time, in preparation for the launch of a new business, I've been doing an enormous amount of research and reading on all subjects to do with small business. The focus of the new business is to become a resource for small businesses on how to go beyond survival and thrive in today's current economic climate. Right now, it's essential for small businesses to focus their time on core competencies that directly affect the bottom line. I will be writing to review some of the many tools that are out there for small businesses, as well as spotlight information of experts in other fields that I believe will add value to the small business owner.