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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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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Blogs I Read Every Day and Why
Blogs are becoming one of my major news sources. With my interest in ERP, SFA, CRM, Business Process automation , enterprise computing, marketing, business intelligence, business analysis, finance, engine technology, Calgary, Silicon Valley, startups, Web 2.0, data warehousing, business intelligence, military, and etc. I have a few Blogs that I go for the straight goods. Here are the ones that have my attention these days (in no particular order):

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ERP and CRM Provides Better Communications with Colleagues and Clients
I think it is time to talk about Sealweld. Not so much Sealweld as such, as they are extremely successful multi-national small business. Sealweld is just a great example of a company that has figured out how to do business anywhere in the world whether it be the Far East or Dubai, they have seen it all. I would like to think that we have at least helped in the success of this company. We installed our Toolbox at Sealweld and this enabled them to tie their CRM together with the ERP and Project Management features of the system. They now share documents and project details with each other as if they were in the same building working side by side when in fact they are usually in Calgary while the rest of their operations are taking place elsewhere. CRM helps us to sell more and it also makes it easier to communicate with everybody in your work sphere.

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Engineering Your Company’s Social Network
You don’t want it “too social” so it will take away from the purpose, you don’t want it too restricting, intimidating, or unfriendly to take away from the usefulness. I was inspired to write these thoughts because of the business I currently pursue and my recent readings of Mack Hanan and Paul Greenberg. My thinking as a provider of ERP, SFA, CRM, and Business Process automation is shifting towards the social aspects of these systems. The fact is, if you have a system that people will use, you will be a successful system provider, pretty much as long as people have faith in the system.

The ultimate goal is to provide a network that is lively, rewarding, interesting, inviting, captivating, and a hundred other positive words to describe the experience. Here are some thoughts on creating an ideal social network for your company. First of all, unless there is a better way we need to bring all the acronyms (ERP, SFA, CRM, and BPM) together in a way that doesn’t turn everybody off. You want to create a network that people embrace, and use, and constantly tell you what new features they want. According to a recent Blog by Kevin Roberts, “we are moving from what you need to what you want”. Here are a few thoughts on making that system:

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