Rick Baker Thought Posts
Left Menu Space Holder

About the author

Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

E-mail me Send mail
Follow me LinkedIn Twitter

Search

Calendar

<<  April 2024  >>
MoTuWeThFrSaSu
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

View posts in large calendar

Recent Comments

Comment RSS

Anything's possible when it's Digital – Part 1

by Rick Baker
On Jun 27, 2016

I am inspired by the possibilities tied to customized software. 

As my son, Jack, says – “Anything’s possible when it’s digital.”

About the possibilities…

I’m thinking about one of Todd Henry’s key questions1 - "If you could snap your fingers right now and make anything happen in your job what would it be?"

I have found the majority of people answer this question in one of two ways:

  • Expressing a desire to improve interactions with people they work with [clients, employees, bosses, etc.]
  • Expressing a desire to have better access to information [better accuracy, quicker access, easier access, etc.]

Customized software can help bring about both these desired goals. 

It is relatively easy to see the direct connection between customized software and ‘better access to information’. Simply put, customized software brings the power of big data to small businesses [at an affordable price]. Small businesses can mine the value embedded in their various databases, extracting value from databases of information ranging from sales to inventory right through to accounting and financial [and everything in between]. The full value can be extracted quickly, in real time, and it can be presented in ways that energize the user experience, just one example being - wonderful dashboards.

And customized software can help ‘improve people interactions’. For example, simple tools can be developed to organize strategic & tactical efforts such as goal setting processes and performance reporting…adding inspiring visual presentations. These enhancements expand motivation and promote teamwork. Another example – software development can play a leading role in people development. Customized tools can assist talent recognition processes and talent meshing: the power of Gallup research can be combined with StrengthsFinder2 talent assessments to guide training, education, and selection of people for specialized teams and teamwork.

These are just a couple of examples of how customized software can help you accomplish your dream-goals. 

“Anything’s possible when it’s digital.”

 

Footnotes:

1.Todd Henry, 'Die Empty', (2014)

2.Tom Rath, ‘StrengthsFinder 2.0’, (2007)

Tags:

IT & TECH

Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you updating your business tools?

by Rick Baker
On May 9, 2013

About Tools & Business Improvements


It started with rocks and sticks. In our early days, we used them to do work.

We needed them to perform what our bodies could not do. We used tools to make work easier and less risky. We used rocks to injure prey. We used rocks to scrape the meat off bones. We used rocks to open shells. We burned sticks to keep us warm. We burned sticks to protect ourselves from animals.

We used sticks & stones to make spears for hunting. 

We used sticks to support us when our legs were injured and we used sticks as spears for fishing. 

 

Later we used rocks and slings to hunt prey from a distance. We used sticks to create bows and arrows for protection and hunting.

Tools have played a major role in our lives...in summary, 5 ways:

  1. Making them,
  2. Exchanging them, 
  3. Putting them to good use, 
  4. Maintaining them, &
  5. Upgrading them [as technologies and our bank accounts allow].
 
And now, with really-advanced technologies, tools are creating really-advanced problems for us...call them techno-problems.
 
Techno-Problems: here are a few examples:
 
Yes - our increasing demand for higher-technology and innovative tools has generated techno-problems.
 
We need to fix that.
 
The solution is: seeking simple and one important aspect is simplifying our tools.
 
Some suggestions:
  • Less is better...limit the amount of information you are exposed to. Be information-selective. Employ the 80/20 Rule. These reductions will allow you to focus on what's important. 
  • Use 1-Page Tools: demystify process and help your people get over work-process hurdles
  • Take advantage of proprietary software
  • Remove system & process gaps...those work-flow disconnects that cause duplication of work, unnecessary month-end and project-completion overtime and other things that really annoy your people
 
 

 

 

Tags:

1-Page Tools | 80/20 Rule | Business Contains Only 3 Things | Change: Creating Positive Change | IT & TECH

Permalink | Comments (0)

Thought Tweet #488

by Rick Baker
On May 30, 2012

Thought Tweet #488 As technology advances at an ever-increasing pace we are at a similarly-increasing pace becoming isolated individuals.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Thinking about 'Future Shock' while reading 'ZEN and the art of making a living'...people can be immensely connected while, at the same, time most isolated. It is difficult to match the power of physical proximity. 

Tags:

Beyond Business | IT & TECH | Thought Tweets

Permalink | Comments (0)

eCRMine© - #2

by Rick Baker
On Dec 17, 2009
Our CRM system works!
 
We built our CRM system – which we call our eCRMine – using our own software-engineering savvy and our own sales-management savvy.  We did that because experience showed us off-the-shelf tools did not allow us to inject creativity…a necessary ingredient of a successful CRM system.
 
To summarize, we think a CRM system is successful when it has the following attributes:
  • It gets used…used by staff, used by management, and used by leaders
  • It serves the needs identified by staff, managers, and leaders [ie, it serves The Plan]
  • It can be expanded or contracted…ie, it can be changed to meet changing needs
When we talked about creating eCRMine we knew about Wikipedia and The Internet Movie Database.
 
 
We knew about those information systems and we knew people embraced them…they were user-friendly and they were comprehensive, containing huge amounts of cross-referenced information.
 
That’s what we wanted in our CRM system. We wanted to capture names and facts. We wanted cross-referencing like that contained in Wikipedia and IMDb. I used to say - we want it Wikipedia-ish and IMDb-ish.
 
Using IMDb as a metaphor – we didn’t just want to know everything about Sylvestor Stallone…when he was born, what movies he was in, when those movies were made, etc. We wanted to be able to quickly find out who else was in those movies. We wanted to know the people who know Sylvester Stallone: the movie  producers, the movie directors, the fellow actors, etc.
 
Thinking about what Malcolm Gladwell [www.gladwell.com] had written in The Tipping Point, about Kevin Bacon and Rod Steiger [the best-connected actor of all time], we wanted to capture relationships on multiple levels.
 
The good news: it is not difficult to build a powerful CRM system…and we would be pleased to share the results of our work with you.
 
If you would like to learn more about our eCRMine then let us know.
 
***
 
Over the last 2 years, Spirited has talked with hundreds of businesses, all seeking help. We noticed trends and we developed a short list of questions to help us understand the precise nature of the help required.
In the next blog series, I will share and discuss those questions.

Tags:

IT & TECH | Marketing | Networking: The Joys of Connection | Sales

Permalink | Comments (0)

eCRMine© - #1

by Rick Baker
On Dec 15, 2009
We are pleased to announce: Our CRM System Works!
 
For many years, we have seen people suffer with client-contact and relationship management systems..."CRM systems". And, we have suffered ourselves.
 
In the early 1990's I discovered Lotus123. That software allowed me to create a database/spreadsheet combination that had some positives: information capture, user-friendly, sorting, reports, etc. Lotus123 software allowed us to get some basic organization in place.
 
This happened about the same time cell phones were shrinking from luggage-size to hand-held size.
 
Back then - the world of information and communication seemed a much-simpler space.
 
Back then - people spent more time building relationship than talking about the need for them, let alone talking about the need for relationship-support tools.
 
Things have changed.
 
Now - lots of people have a desktop computer, a laptop, a BlackBerry, and a notebook. That's what I have and (ask anyone) I'm not a high-tech fellow.
 
Now - I'm writing a blog about CRMs.
 
Actually, this blog is about introducing our proprietary CRM, which we call our eCRMine.
 
e - electronic
CRM - contact relationship management
Mine - our gold mine of specialized information [Value repository]
 
Here's a link to a picture of the opening page of our eCRMine.
(link to eCRMine)
 
Over the years, we have suffered and watched others suffer with CRM systems.
 
To remove this suffering, after exploring many other options for many years, in 2007, we decided to build our own eCRMine.
 
We built eCRMine using our own software-engineering savvy and our own sales-management savvy.
 
eCRMine is 'modular' - it can be customized and we can transfer its 'technology' to other businesses.
 
In the next blog, I will provide some more details about our eCRMine…

Tags:

IT & TECH | Marketing | Networking: The Joys of Connection | Sales

Permalink | Comments (0)

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.