Google May Be Up to Something Bigger Than We Can Imagine
This is an odd blog for me as it is just the sharing of a nagging idea that I have. Google is one of the all time smartest companies in history, so why are they taking on Microsoft in the Operating System (OS) market? I think the answer is somewhere around the idea that Google is trying (successfully I might add) to get Microsoft’s attention while Google quietly works on something that is so big, yet so simple, that they want to keep the eyes of Microsoft focused on their OS R&D and away from their other project(s).

One of my personal theories is that Google is working on a simple business intelligence platform that will be distributed freely and interface directly with their Google search algorithm. This platform is exactly what marketing gurus have been looking for, sort of like the Holy Grail.

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CRM Suggestions for Automakers, Part One
For most of us, the second largest purchase after our homes is our automobiles. As a person who provides CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Business Intelligence consulting, products, and services I often wonder why the automakers haven’t latched on to this powerful tool. I know for sure the automakers have all their customers in a nice tidy database and they use that database to send us brochures, offers, letters, and other communications. What I have in mind is a bit more elaborate and will be a series of blog entries as I am sure there will be comments and discussions that will evoke more ideas on this subject.

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The Business Intelligence Advantage

As a young US Air Force Intelligence Officer I quickly grew an appreciation for intelligence and how it can help with planning and can help save lives, money, and secrets. I now develop business automation software that creates data warehouses for companies to store their business intelligence. I don't think we are in the life saving business, but we certainly help companies to guard their secrets, find new sources of revenue, and maximize their profits.

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New AlwaysOn Network, ERP CRM SFA BPM
I just wanted to announce that we started a new network for AlwaysOn Network Members to Blog about Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA) and all things pertaining to automating our business processes. A few topics that come to mind are:

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The Importance of Professional Customer Support
Several of our consulting clients are software companies and companies that provide service and support for their products, we always help our clients and colleagues to maximize support profits by automating the process. But to get to a profitable venture there are many things that have to happen, systems put in place, and hiring the right people to do the job.

The right people are NOT entry level people, they are the most focused, knowledgeable, and disciplined people you can find. Once you decide to go down this path of using the cream of the crop to ensure your clients are supported, you will see the profits start to come in. Now when your clients call they are ensured that their call will be answered by someone who can help them, someone who takes their business seriously and feels they are being taken most seriously.

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ERP Should Make You Free
The very essence of a well designed ERP system is to free you from the dependencies of making all the mundane decisions over and over again and have the confidence that your system is helping you to run your business in the most efficient and profit producing manner known to man. I just finished reading an excellent article by Briony Smith of www.itbusiness.ca and it was a revelation, particularly for me as a person in the ERP business and providing ERP systems, consulting, and implementation services. The article is compelling right from the start with the following quote;

“A recently released survey of Technology Evaluation Centre  newsletter subscribers sponsored by Sliedrecht, Netherlands-based ERP company Agresso found that, out of the 900 respondents, 70 per cent feel their ERP systems put them at a disadvantage.”

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I have been working in the public information business for a while now and am very clear about privacy laws and just how sacred personal information is and how important it is to handle personal information very carefully indeed. The amount of information we are gathering about our customers and contacts is growing exponentially, probably because we can. If you only knew how much information is captured and actively used by Data Warehouses, Wal-Mart warehouse is at least 500 terabytes, according to an eWeek.com article I read, At Wal-Mart, World's Largest Retail Data Warehouse Gets Even Larger. Short answer to the question is no, but if you do collect information you better take very good care of it.

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Simple Formula: ERP = Instant Growth
This simple formula is a given for me as I build ERP systems for a living….but as I said this to a potential client the other day it kicked off a very interesting conversation and intense scrutiny of that claim and I will outline some of those discussions in this Blog. The reason why ERP is a “secret advantage” for big business is because they can afford it. Now with new software development tools, the internet, and a growing rank and file of users, the secret is out of the bag and it is ERP. I will now step off my soap box (no software pun intended) and get to the area of my concern. How can I best explain the advantages of ERP to the SMB owner who wants to grow to the next step and has exhausted all other avenues?

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Building Bridges to Your Islands of Data
It wasn’t too long ago that data and information were completely isolated to office buildings and peer to peer connections. Some in the industry call it a “data silo”. Over the last few years many data mining and business intelligence systems have been completely liberated by becoming web enabled. I was recently speaking with some government officials about creating a “super database” or as my colleagues in the business intelligence world call it, a Data Warehouse. The super database will likely be a very large and complex database, but the very idea of making this data available to people who need it to keep track of high risk energy pipelines is compelling. What better way to make sure that we don’t have an accident that could harm our population, harm our environment, and interrupt our flow of energy.

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Why Do We Need ERP and Business Process Automation?
Somewhere along the line we started talking about "Serious Businesses". I can remember clearly the day we decided to write this on our website and brochures, we were trying to reach out to those companies that were ready to take the next step. Let's face it, we are all "Serious" business people so this comment was not meant to slight anyone or the way business is conducted, it was meant to make people stop and assess their choices and decisions they are making in everyday business. There comes a time when the business starts to be larger than the people who started it and requires multiple people working together, sometimes in multiple locations, multiple time zones, and it just begins to press us to seriously consider how to make our lives easier and to be able to grow our business with more profits. So having said that I would like to make a case for a few of the reasons why we need ERP and Business Process Automation.

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