New Years Resolution

Welcome to the first blog post of 2012!  The year 2011 is now behind us and it is time to look forward to all things 2012.  When it is impossible to find an available treadmill and the produce section is empty, you know what time of the year it is.  It’s time for New Year’s resolutions!  New Year’s resolutions are not limited to just fitness and health goals.  It is also a time that can be taken to evaluate your business, department or position strategy.

Here at e3datasolutions, we wanted to share some of our professional resolutions with you.

Bill Cooey | Principal Owner:

“I want to eliminate our reliance on email by using cloud based storage and collaboration tools like box.net. First with company contacts and then with all customers!”

Falahyar Fatmi | Principal Owner:

“I would like to create a working environment for creative thinking, provide a platform and a business process to convert ideas into functional reality”

Ezra Gallagher | Research Analyst:

“For the New Year, I would like to expand my professional network and improve the quality of my reports. I feel that it is in e3datasolution’s best interest to create new contacts to help grow our business. By expanding my network, I can not only find potential clients for our services but also learn more about what the public would like from our Apps. Through the improved quality of my reports, I will be able to attract a broader range of customer and give e3datasolutions a competitive advantage.”

Eli Flores | Business Analyst and Development:

“To continue staying on cutting edge of available cloud-based technologies and their best practices”

Amoreth Gozo | Digital Marketing Specialist:

“This year, my goal is to provide quality service to e3datasolutions’ current and potential clients by identifying their needs and working to address them directly. It is important to have that support available to customers. Additionally, I plan to work with the marketing department to help implement novel strategies to keep client-customer relationships strong by opening the lines of communication between parties.”

Mark Williamson | Research Analyst:

“For the new year, I want to continue finding new and exciting ways to grow the company by finding innovative ways to solve complex problems that businesses encounter on a day-to-day basis.  Through our work, I hope that we can create products that push innovation to its limits allowing companies to focus and improve their core services and products creating a constant cycle of innovation.”

Ashley Rabon | Digital Marketing Specialist:

“In the new year, I’d like to keep e3 content flowing!  I want to nourish the relationship with current customers and gain the trust of potential customers by letting them know what e3 is up to and provide them with relevant information they can put to use. I’ll accomplish this by sending out the e-Newsletter monthly, posting blogs weekly and staying on top of e3’s social media outlets.”

While we have high hopes and good intentions of maintaining our resolutions, most of us start off strong but seem to forget about those resolutions we made at the beginning of the year.  Here at e3, we have decided to “stick to our guns” and make these resolutions last.

So, how are we going to accomplish that?

First off, we have them in a blog! Writing your resolutions down in a permanent place, such as a blog, can help you remain accountable for them.  Going along with the theme of accountability, tell your co-workers, family and friends of your resolutions.  Ask them to keep you on the right track and request updates. Even if you don’t ask, chances are they will anyway.

Secondly, make sure your resolutions are things that can be measured or checked off.  Many of us tend to make vague resolutions that prove difficult to measure.  Resolutions need to be realistic and clearly attainable.  If they aren’t, we won’t try to pursue them because we can’t achieve them anyway.

One last thing you can do to try to reach your goals is to re-read them. Post it on a sticky note to your computer. Set a calendar notification on the last workday of the month with your resolutions on them.  Set a reminder on your phone once a month.  This will make you see the resolutions that you have made, not allowing you to escape them.

No matter what your title is, we should all strive to grow in our respective field. What could you do better? Take this time during the beginning of 2012 to think about resolutions that you might have in your professional life.  Make it a department or team meeting.  All of us can use extra motivation!

e3datasolutions wants to help you achieve your New Year’s resolution. If you need a technology solution to help your company exceed your goals, e3datasolutions can work with you to define and design a solution that is carefully built around your needs and processes. Contact us today to discover how we can make your resolution a reality.

returning to the good ole usa

Onshoring is becoming a popular business trend and as U.S. stress continues, Americans seek out companies that strive to support domestic jobs. According to the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report for 2011, the United States currently ranks as the fifth best place in the world for businesses to operate. Offshoring provides significant cost savings in comparison to urban vendors, but the overhead costs of governing, communication, and productivity, lead American firms to onshore certain projects and still get high quality results for a relatively low price.

Some of the major benefits of onshoring include great quality work at a lower cost, potential government subsidies, and not having to grapple with the big time-zone gaps, or language and cultural differences that can complicate relationships. The cost of American onshoring is 40% cheaper than that in urban areas; however, it could be 15-20% more costly than offshoring. Typically, a complex project will yield more advantages if it is outsourced locally, whereas a service such as a call center should be offshored because the cost for the same service is lower.

Onshoring could boost the economy by providing talented individuals in rural areas with jobs, while companies continue to pay lower wages due to less expensive cost of living. Charges for PHP and .Net -based work costs approximately $50 an hour which is significantly cheaper than quotes in urban areas. In addition, the government’s $7 billion fund to implement broadband in rural areas will facilitate millions of Americans joining the virtual rural workforce, allowing more U.S. firms to outsource locally.

An important benefit of onshoring is that hiring a U.S.-based firm may be more politically acceptable for many organizations, and in turn more compatible with corporate values. “The Buy American” movement teams manufacturers and workers in an effort to persuade consumers to purchase products made in the United States. Even Asian auto maker, KIA, advertises as “Made in America” in order to lure more American customers in their desire to create and retain American jobs.

If a company wants to become a leader in onshoring, it must choose the location wisely. It should be first to move in, and look closely at the number and quality of local colleges: Can they provide enough graduates who have the necessary skills? Government incentives should be considered carefully; they can shorten break-even time to just a few years, but subsidies will eventually go away.

Onshoring should be one of many potential options when considering your IT needs.

Click Here to find out how your company can benefit from implementing a complete sourcing strategy.

missed donations?

Although nonprofits across the nation have different goals and beliefs, they all share one thing: their ability to advance forward is dependent upon the funds they raise. While most organizations know the importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), many fail to implement the system correctly, thus causing problems and losses down the road.

Capacity building is an ongoing issue that most nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face. Typically, NPOs rely on external funding such as government funds, grants from charitable foundations, or direct donations. If those funds vary drastically, or are unpredictable, then the organization may be unable to maintain its facilities, staff, or create events. Because of that, NPOs strive to establish the best fundraising methods, sustain strong relationships with past donors, and communicate effectively with the public in order to secure new funds.

More than ten thousand nonprofits from a variety of sectors are using cloud computing CRM to power their success and achieve their mission. The basic block of fundraising is knowing who the most influential members are, and when and how they have interacted with your association. With an effective CRM, organizations can keep clear records of donors and target specific materials to them for fundraising purposes. With proper Salesforce integration, contacting and managing potential donors is simple, in turn increasing online marketing opportunities.

Because NPOs are private, non-government organizations with self-governing boards, the management is accountable to the members, donors, and the general public. If an organization discloses its financial reports openly to the government and its donors, more people would be willing to work with it due to its transparency. By implementing a CRM system, the nonprofit would have a strong structure for managing its business, making reporting quick, easy, and accurate.

E3datasolutions will work with you to define and design a solution that is carefully built around your needs and process. After we consult, we build a project team and provide all the resources needed to put the plan into action. Contact us today and discover a whole new way to fundraise, manage members, and report progress with cloud computing!

how do your IT costs stack up with the value received?

Any U.S. consumer who makes regular trips to the grocery store knows that prices are rising. Although according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation over the last couple of years has been kept between -2.1% and 3.6%, those low numbers feel as if they ought to be higher.

Commodities are soaring, oil prices are surging, and supermarket prices are no exception. If six dollars used to buy half a gallon of ice cream, now that same cost only covers a quart and a half. For people who do not buy the same things often, differences like these are easy to overlook because the actual price has not changed. For those regular shoppers, what is supposed to be the same bucket of ice cream has in fact shrunk by 25%.  This unfortunately is true for the majority of products the U.S. consumes.

Corporations are trying to maintain the package and price the same, but what customers are beginning to notice is that their bag of chips now contains more air than chips. America’s supersize portions are slowly transforming into supersize packages with less product. Consumer reports show that instead of one pound of coffee, companies now sell three quarters for the same price, forcing the customer to pay up to 33% more for the same good.

Typically, this would be called inflation. However, according to MSNBC, officially the U.S. inflation rate on food and energy prices is zero.  “In the month of June 2011, the food index rose 0.2 percent and the energy index declined 4.4 percent, the largest decline since December 2008” (Bureau of Labor Statistics). If the statistics actually showed that America has inflation, that would mean that citizens would rightfully demand raises on their salary and social security benefits.

The concept of “hidden inflation” affects the service sector of our economy in a parallel way. Whether the unit of measurement is a quart, a pound, or an hour spent on consulting, customers want to get the same product or service as they did in the past.  The same holds true for IT. Are you quoted the same hourly rate, but your projects seem to take longer?

Our specialists at E3datasolutions fulfill every detail of our clients’ requests for a reasonable time and fee. Most importantly, e3datasolutions goes a long way to ensure that every dollar you spend with us brings higher productivity and growth to your firm.

We work closely with the customer to gather their exact requirements, design the proper solution, and provide continuous support. Every situation is unique and every customer has different operations, techniques and goals, but our prices and products are always consistent.

Click Here to experience our excellent services and see how much value your IT dollar can reap for yourself!

non profit volunteers - a valuable resource

Volunteers are a nonprofit’s most valuable, yet limited resource.  Whether people want to express their values through activities that are meaningful, expand their career prestige by building new relationships, or just give back to the community, they become the advocates of the association, and build organizational strength. Without the bond of volunteers, the organization lacks a sense of ownership and unity.

Because volunteering is a personal choice, and not someone’s job, it is important to appreciate peoples’ efforts. Nonprofits try to make the most out of volunteers’ time, however sometimes they are not so lucky, and end up doing the same task more than once. This can come from poor organization, technology breakdowns, or as simple as the next volunteer having to start over from scratch. Has that ever happened to you?

For example, you spend long hours searching for potential donors for a fundraiser and finally compile a list of contacts, but only days later it disappears along with the other pile of papers on someone’s desk. Luckily, you have the file saved on your computer, so you spend the next hour making more copies, or sending it via email to everyone in charge. By this point, volunteers may just become frustrated and move on.

Ensuring that volunteers’ time is spent as efficiently as possible could be rather difficult, but imperative. If volunteering becomes a pain due to reoccurring problems and takes up the majority of their time, they may just quit and find a different association that is more respectful of their time commitment.

For some generations, the transition from a paper-based system to one that is online and high tech can be very frustrating. Having to change someone’s methods at the age of seventy can be difficult for both the volunteer and the administrators. There have been instances in which people have barely used the internet, and tech specialists would need to explain basics such as ‘how to scroll down the page’.  You can picture the frustration on both sides of the line, when volunteers are unable to fulfill requests, or even log in.

Smart nonprofits are taking advantage of new technology, such as cloud platforms like Salesforce.com, to easily build custom applications that can be accessed from anywhere, at anytime, or on any device. The speed and efficiency of cloud computing eliminates all the hassle of data management and allows volunteers to be well organized anywhere, anytime. The Salesforce.com platform is easy to implement, user-friendly, and very flexible.

E3datasolutions will work with you to design a solution that is centered on your nonprofit’s needs and goals.  Our specialists can help you achieve a higher rate of efficiency which will strengthen your organization and the communities it serves.

Click Here to experience our excellent services for yourself!

Amazon’s Services: Series: 1: Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)

Amazon is the world’s largest and most successful online store. Many years of extensive experience with massive e-mail campaigns has enabled Amazon to create one amazing infrastructure and to share it with the public. Amazon finally launched Simple E-mail Service in January which is an excellent addition to their cloud-based services. Amazon’s Simple Email Service (SES) is a cost effective and transactional e-mail sending service that will be mostly used by businesses and developers. To build an in-house e-mail system or to license, install and utilize a third-party e-mail service is complex and expensive. Amazon’s Simple Email Service (SES) is the quickest and most cost-efficient solution. The Simple Email Service (SES) uses a simple API to send the email which is billed per email. The current rate is only ten cents per thousand emails sent.

To get started with Amazon SES the user must sign up by logging creating a personal account with Amazon. After signing up, the e-mail is verified by Amazon and the user can start sending test messages. Amazon will only allow a few test emails during your probationary period. After successfully completing the first steps, the users can request production access. Email quotas will be increased as a user demonstrates that they are not spamming. Users will be able to initially send up to 1,000 emails per each 24-hour period and increase it as follows: 10,000 in the next 3 days, 100,000 in 10 days, and up to 1,000,000 in approximately 2 weeks.  To sign up for the service there is no long-term commitment and businesses can enjoy free usage tier and competitive low fees depending on the amount of e-mails sent and the data transfer fees.

With an active account plus the “middleware” or some custom code in your existing CRM system, a company can quickly create and distribute email to their customers, employees, or other parties. All this without the hassle of owning equipment or managing the email server.

E3datasolutions will work with you to define and design a solution that is carefully built around your needs and process. After we consult we build a project team and provide all the resources that are needed to put the designed plan into action. Yes, we are your trusted partner in success because we provide the very best continuous support. Click here to experience our services for yourself.

Part III of III

In Part II of III “Crowdsourcing puts the customer in the spotlight” you learned about how the consumer benefits from Crowdsourcing. Your customers know your services or products best and why not take advantage of that to decrease your expenditures and drive profit.

One very important thing to realize about crowdsourcing is that while it involves a large number of individuals “working to help the client”, they are not the company’s employees. You are still responsible for moderating the feedback to make sure it is accurate and factual.

Giving such an important responsibility to your customers you are also exploring the opportunity for the consumer to come up with innovative solutions. As a business you will not only learn about various options and solutions but, also better understand your customer in your target audience.  The better you understand your customers the more you will have the ability to improve your products or services to meet their needs. Better understanding leads to loyal, happy customers. The cost of getting a new customer is always more expensive than keeping your current customers. This savings goes directly to your bottom line.

Crowdsourcing’s most appealing feature is that it is cost efficient.  Small and startup businesses don’t always have a large budget to spend. Crowdsourcing offers virtually no limit on the number of respondents therefore; you can end up with numerous options and endless possibilities for your improving your products and services.

Crowdsourcing is becoming widely accepted and more available to the consumer. Soon customers will expect your business to get them involved. E3datasolutions will lead you along the way to successfully implement a strategy and will work with you to define and design a solution. All recommendations are carefully built around your needs and process. Always remember that e3datasolutions does not only consult but also builds a project team and provides all of the resources that are needed to put the designed plan into action. E3datasolutions will “hold your hand” along the way and will provide continuous support. Don’t forget that we are your trusted partner in success! Click here to better use technology to drive a solid return on investment.

The Customer in the Spotlight-Part II of III

Now that you have read Crowdsourcing Series: Part I “The Overview” and you understand Crowdsourcing, it is time to analyze its benefits to you customers.

Crowdsourcing puts the customer in the Spotlight. Who doesn’t like to be in the spotlight?  The goal of every business is to keep its customers happy and turn them into loyal long-term consumers for your business. Every smart business owner understands  that it takes a lot more money and time to capture new customers rather than keeping the existing customers. Crowdsourcing gives your customers the opportunity to shine and it should be made available to them. Happy customers are more likely to continue to use your services and will not turn to other companies.

By using Crowdsourcing you are letting your customers know that you value their feedback therefore, they feel more confident and interact better with your services and products. The consumer has access to a wide range of opinions and feedback to resolve their issues in a time efficient manner. Participants in crowdsourcing have no limits and are from different backgrounds and have different expertise and will benefit from exchanging ideas and learning from each other. To further motivate the consumers’ prizes and other incentives can enhance the participant’s performance and attract more qualified individuals.

Crowdsourcing can benefit the consumers for both services and products. As consumers participate they will learn more about your product or service and will have a stronger bond with the brand or organization. They will also get their answers in a timely manner and get more options for resolving an issue. The customer’s input and opinnions will be expressed from their own perspective making it easier for other customers to understand.

In the Crowdsourcing Series: Part III we will discuss how Crowdsourcing solutions provide value to the company far beyond the simple engagement if they are executed in a cohesive and strategicly organized manner.

e3datasolutions will work with you to define and design a solution that is carefully built around your needs and process. After we consult we build a project team and provide all the resources that are needed to put the designed plan into action. Yes, we are your trusted partner in success because we provide the very best continuous support. Click here to experience our services for yourself.

Smart businesses always look for ways to help their customers. Especially when it can also minimize expenses and maximize profit. If utilized successfully, crowdsourcing can be profitable in many ways. The concept of crowdsourcing is very simple to understand. Crowd and sourcing is exactly what it means-using “the crowd” as the “source” for help.

Simply put – Crowdsourcing utilizes the customer’s experiences and emotions to provide collaborative answers to commonly encountered problems.

In a traditional customer service environment this duty is performed by a set number of employees, whereas in crowdsourcing an infinite number of people can perform this task without increasing labor costs.

In addition to the “free” labor, the company can also benefit from fresh and innovative ideas. Allowing customers to participate in the Customer Service process engages the customer in a deeper level. That by itself increases customer loyalty. Crowdsourcing utilizes the customer’s own experiences and emotions to provide collaborative answers to commonly encountered problems.

Crowdsourcing is one of the best tools for a company’s customer service toolbox for any business that wants to provide quality products and services and is, of course, customer service oriented. To effectively use crowdsourcing it has to be planned and well maintained. Web Services such as www.getsatisfaction.com allow business to build online communities and easily enable valuable and productive conversations between customers. The www.getsatisfaction.com service focus on four conversations around simple, outcome-oriented topic types:

• Ask a question-this service enables customers to quickly connect with each other, the company and the answers they are looking for.
• Share an Idea-a Focus Group 2.0 allowing feedback in a way that maximizes valuable conversation among customers.
• Report a Problem-Fast search and solutions to problems customers may encounter. “Real time insight into potential issues and defects”
• Give Praise-real time love between the customer and the company

All four services channel discussions effectively, while maintaining focused and productive conversations. Not only do companies reduce support costs, but they also drastically increase traffic to their website, fan pages, and blog. Most importantly of all, crowdsourcing allows businesses and organizations to build strong relationships with its customers and gain loyalty.

• 13% of workers eat lunch from a vending machine at least once a week
• 38% of workers eat more unhealthy snacks at work than at home
• 67% of workers admit to snacking at least once during the workday
• 39% of workers go out for lunch at least once a week

Weight-gain at work isn’t uncommon, especially if your job  requires you sit still in a chair all day. The workplace environment can be full of calories but there is something you can do to avoid weight-gain at work:

• More H2O. Staying hydrated will suppress your cravings, help you stay focused and prevent fatigue.
• Sleeping Habits. Lack of sleep increases the body’s production of the stress hormone cortisol which is linked to increased belly fat.
• Balanced Breakfast. Research shows that people who eat a balanced breakfast everyday have a healthier weight. Don’t skip breakfast.
• Skip the Vending Machine. Stock up your desk with healthy snacks such as fruit or protein bars.
• Pack your lunch and snacks. This will save you money and calories.
• Find a weight loss buddy in your workplace. Compete-see who loses the most by the end of the summer.
• Maximize your activities. Take a 10 minute walk during your lunch break. Don’t take the elevator-take the stairs instead. It adds up at the end of the day.
• Keep a Food Diary. Track your eating habits by writing down what you ate, the amount, what time and how you felt after eating it.