Wednesday, November 25, 2009
I am crazy?
Tonight I did it, I submitted my application to the Freeman School of Business at Tulane in New Orleans. Tulane has what looks to be a well regarded Executive MBA program. I took the four days of prep classes they offered to prospective students. It was eye opening and challenging. It is amazing how much tenth grade Algebra you forget (or never learned). ax + by = c and dx + ey = f solve for y and x. Does it bring back memories or just make your head hurt. Then the next day ??= [1/r]*[1 + (r/m)]^(t*m) i think but i could be wrong. Oh btw the way we had to derive all the functions we used just for practice. These types of problems were reserved for the four hour morning classes (Friday and Saturday). In the afternoon we took a high speed trip through the basics of accounting ending the creation of Statements of Cash Flow, the Direct via the workstation method and indirect via the Income Statement. They even threw in some basic VBA functionality in Excel. Anyway I should know if my application is accepted by December 4th. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Policy and Procedures
Policy and Procedures! The question at hand is how to distribute tasks and responsibility? Whether to create specialist with cross training or to have generalist with management or supervisors as the specialist or guru's.
Historically, I have employed the generalist model while allowing the specialist to be defined through the process of natural selection. This model worked reasonably well, however it does have its draw backs. It lacks accountability and consistent level of technical support. At times you get people working types of troubles that they like but are not necessary well suited to handle. Knowledge tends not be shared nor documented as each person begins to create his or her fiefdom. This method often created support deficits when people change department or leave the organization.
As of late I have leaning towards a more process driven model. By this I mean training a primary and secondary persons for each different skill sets or area to be covered. This method requires the personnel to be supported with a process manual defining not skill but the work flow. Thus defining when to escalate, when to kill tickets that are not germane the companies service, or transfer the ticket to more focused group. This too has it potential problems. There is the risk of the "not my job" syndrome. However, this to me is a sign of a that the employee is not a team player or has an issue with some level of management. They often use the "not my job" in conjunction a point they are trying to make.
It is my believe that this method will yield better customer service experiences for your customer if managed by an proactive manager. That is someone who listening to the support recordings, do the customer follow ups on customer service calls and terminating quickly those that are not capable , not polite, those that resist the process no matter what there skill set or perceived value.
Just a reminder, too my readers and myself as this has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. You cannot change a persons work ethic nor their intelligence. You may be able influence the work ethics but after three or four months they are what they are going to be in your organization. Cut weak or disruptive employees quickly and remember this is a business not a social club. Joe may be a great guy but does not necessarily make him a good employee. One other tip, if you are have trouble with a group towing the line, fire the one they perceive as being irreplaceable. You will have short term hiccup as he likely is very valuable but the point will be made that no one is beyond the rules or irreplaceable. This will serve you well for many years.
Historically, I have employed the generalist model while allowing the specialist to be defined through the process of natural selection. This model worked reasonably well, however it does have its draw backs. It lacks accountability and consistent level of technical support. At times you get people working types of troubles that they like but are not necessary well suited to handle. Knowledge tends not be shared nor documented as each person begins to create his or her fiefdom. This method often created support deficits when people change department or leave the organization.
As of late I have leaning towards a more process driven model. By this I mean training a primary and secondary persons for each different skill sets or area to be covered. This method requires the personnel to be supported with a process manual defining not skill but the work flow. Thus defining when to escalate, when to kill tickets that are not germane the companies service, or transfer the ticket to more focused group. This too has it potential problems. There is the risk of the "not my job" syndrome. However, this to me is a sign of a that the employee is not a team player or has an issue with some level of management. They often use the "not my job" in conjunction a point they are trying to make.
It is my believe that this method will yield better customer service experiences for your customer if managed by an proactive manager. That is someone who listening to the support recordings, do the customer follow ups on customer service calls and terminating quickly those that are not capable , not polite, those that resist the process no matter what there skill set or perceived value.
Just a reminder, too my readers and myself as this has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. You cannot change a persons work ethic nor their intelligence. You may be able influence the work ethics but after three or four months they are what they are going to be in your organization. Cut weak or disruptive employees quickly and remember this is a business not a social club. Joe may be a great guy but does not necessarily make him a good employee. One other tip, if you are have trouble with a group towing the line, fire the one they perceive as being irreplaceable. You will have short term hiccup as he likely is very valuable but the point will be made that no one is beyond the rules or irreplaceable. This will serve you well for many years.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Social Media Marketing
Recently I began working on advertising with social media sites. My choice for this experiment into Social Media marketing is currently focused on Blogging and Facebook. Facebook's ad engine seems to be pretty good. This is primarily due to the information FB collects on its users. It allows you to focus your ads on particular markets, gender, age and the likes or dislikes of the target market. FB uses a bid system for ad placement similar to Google's "ad words". I have yet to figure out whether it is a competitive bid process or just a "suckers" bid system. I will let you know as I learn more about it.
I have been able to generate clicks and one that was converted into a phone inquiry to the office. I have determined I need to improve the landing page, making the call to action easier and immediate. Currently the call to action is for the prospect to call the office with the ad code to find out if they can get the service.
The status for the first week looks like this:
Bid Type Clicks Impressions CTR (%) Avg. CPC Spent
$0.75 CPC 7 17,374 0.040% $0.65 $4.54
This is a very targeted ad. It is focus on FB users that claim to live within 10 miles of Morgan City, LA. Total population of the martket is less than 30,000 people.
Thanks to Peter Radizeski for the push into this arena.
I have been able to generate clicks and one that was converted into a phone inquiry to the office. I have determined I need to improve the landing page, making the call to action easier and immediate. Currently the call to action is for the prospect to call the office with the ad code to find out if they can get the service.
The status for the first week looks like this:
Bid Type Clicks Impressions CTR (%) Avg. CPC Spent
$0.75 CPC 7 17,374 0.040% $0.65 $4.54
This is a very targeted ad. It is focus on FB users that claim to live within 10 miles of Morgan City, LA. Total population of the martket is less than 30,000 people.
Thanks to Peter Radizeski for the push into this arena.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Build a Data Center
Data Centers. I once thought having a data center was not a big deal. Well that was when I only had a handful of servers in my office in Morgan City. Since I merged my companies into the IDS family, I have been exposed to the real world of Data Centers (DC). The cost involved in building out a "real" data center still amaze me.
Let's consider the components required to build a DC. First, if you building a DC in Louisiana, you must have a building that can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. It must be located near affordable redundant fiber transport.
Next you need redundant power grid capability, redundant fuel supplies, dual self powered generators and redundant cooling plants. Now we have a building with electricity, well almost. We now need the ability to switch between generators and power grid without the dropping power to end-users.
The question that must be answered before you purchase a battery system to handle the switch is how long to you want stay on battery power before your transfer to generators. I have seen some other large data centers (not well run) that have had < less 1 minute of battery to carry the transfer. To be fair this limited time was because the center was not properly managed. You need enough time to be comfortable that your generator can come on line and get to full power capacity. We choose 6-8 hours of battery time. This gives us time, even in the case of primary and secondary generator failure, to either repair or bring in portable generators. It does not pay to go any longer than this due the heat load. The center would be overheated without the A/C running after 6 hours (2) hours in August. Add rack enclosures, ladder systems, power distribution, cabling, A/C (TONS).
Now you have a room with almost everything you need. Can you say "Transit Bandwidth"? You need at least two paths on diverse routes to Tier 1 providers or peering points. We chose to have express routes to Atlanta and Dallas and protected SONET and Ethernet Ring for connection to Hunt Telecom which allows us additional redundancy to other providers and paths. We own our own Fiber routes, IRUs and high capacity waves on virtually every physical path out of Louisiana.
Now you have multi millions invested and/or tied up for collateral to sell rack space for $1,000 to $1,500 per rack. Oh yeah- don't forget the fuel usage bill for the generators and electricity.
I hope this explains why rack space is not free or cheap. When it is cheap you must ask yourself, what is missing?
Let's consider the components required to build a DC. First, if you building a DC in Louisiana, you must have a building that can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. It must be located near affordable redundant fiber transport.
Next you need redundant power grid capability, redundant fuel supplies, dual self powered generators and redundant cooling plants. Now we have a building with electricity, well almost. We now need the ability to switch between generators and power grid without the dropping power to end-users.
The question that must be answered before you purchase a battery system to handle the switch is how long to you want stay on battery power before your transfer to generators. I have seen some other large data centers (not well run) that have had < less 1 minute of battery to carry the transfer. To be fair this limited time was because the center was not properly managed. You need enough time to be comfortable that your generator can come on line and get to full power capacity. We choose 6-8 hours of battery time. This gives us time, even in the case of primary and secondary generator failure, to either repair or bring in portable generators. It does not pay to go any longer than this due the heat load. The center would be overheated without the A/C running after 6 hours (2) hours in August. Add rack enclosures, ladder systems, power distribution, cabling, A/C (TONS).
Now you have a room with almost everything you need. Can you say "Transit Bandwidth"? You need at least two paths on diverse routes to Tier 1 providers or peering points. We chose to have express routes to Atlanta and Dallas and protected SONET and Ethernet Ring for connection to Hunt Telecom which allows us additional redundancy to other providers and paths. We own our own Fiber routes, IRUs and high capacity waves on virtually every physical path out of Louisiana.
Now you have multi millions invested and/or tied up for collateral to sell rack space for $1,000 to $1,500 per rack. Oh yeah- don't forget the fuel usage bill for the generators and electricity.
I hope this explains why rack space is not free or cheap. When it is cheap you must ask yourself, what is missing?
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Self Serving Post
I have decided it is okay to make a post that is for my own self serving interest. If you working the Morgan City, La area and need office space I have about 2600 sq ft left for lease. See it Facebook marketplace
Office Space
I said it was self serving.
Office Space
I said it was self serving.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Biz Tech - Baton Rouge
Today Jack Blank and I went to Baton Rouge to visit the BizTech Expo. It was a nice event held at the River Center. The event was well attended by visitors and exhibitors.
I have been to many of these events over the years but this one was different. I was with Jack. Jack and I go back to LDS and iAmerica days in the mid to late 90's. Back in July Jack came to work for me. I always knew he was a go getter and a pretty good salesman. What I did not realize is that Jack knows everybody. I know what your thinking- he is one of those guys that remembers a name and says I know him or her. Not with Jack, he really knows them, the company they work for and the people they worked with. And to top that off they know him. Walking with Jack I literally ran out of business cards. Every third or fourth booth Jack met someone he knew or did business with.
The thing I noticed is Jack is not just selling a product, he sells himself. He engages the person and takes a personal interest in their business and family. Clients do business with Jack because they like Jack and want to help him succeed. When armed with a good personality and genuine interest in the person you are dealing with, all you would need is an average product. In our case we have above average products AND Jack, a killer combination.
I have been to many of these events over the years but this one was different. I was with Jack. Jack and I go back to LDS and iAmerica days in the mid to late 90's. Back in July Jack came to work for me. I always knew he was a go getter and a pretty good salesman. What I did not realize is that Jack knows everybody. I know what your thinking- he is one of those guys that remembers a name and says I know him or her. Not with Jack, he really knows them, the company they work for and the people they worked with. And to top that off they know him. Walking with Jack I literally ran out of business cards. Every third or fourth booth Jack met someone he knew or did business with.
The thing I noticed is Jack is not just selling a product, he sells himself. He engages the person and takes a personal interest in their business and family. Clients do business with Jack because they like Jack and want to help him succeed. When armed with a good personality and genuine interest in the person you are dealing with, all you would need is an average product. In our case we have above average products AND Jack, a killer combination.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Life and Selling
Recently I was asked to teach Sunday School at my church. Normally not a big deal right? Well, I was asked to teach boys and girls grades 6th to 12th. This is much more daunting of a task than teaching adults, due to the various ages and maturity levels, not to mention their parents. I found myself struggling to find material that would engage there minds and feed their souls. While pondering on these things something hit me. How do they precieve me? Do they respect me- therefore respect the material I present? These thoughts forced me to evaluate my spiritual walk, in fact it requires me improve it.
As a by product of all this "deep thought" some valuable insights in to business practices came flowing to the surface. Not only should we live our spiritual (church) lives with integrity and honor but we should live professional lives the same way. We should be a positive impact on those meet everyday- coworkers, clients, supervisiors, everyone.
For those in sales, when your sales meeting is over, a few things should be left in the propects mind. One is the question whether to buy or not to buy your product or service. However, the most important thing you can leave behind a good repuatation. Wheter the propect buys from you or not, they should be able to say, there was something different about that person. With this thought in their mind you will always have another oportunity for a pitch, mabe even the oportunity to tell them about Jesus.
As a by product of all this "deep thought" some valuable insights in to business practices came flowing to the surface. Not only should we live our spiritual (church) lives with integrity and honor but we should live professional lives the same way. We should be a positive impact on those meet everyday- coworkers, clients, supervisiors, everyone.
For those in sales, when your sales meeting is over, a few things should be left in the propects mind. One is the question whether to buy or not to buy your product or service. However, the most important thing you can leave behind a good repuatation. Wheter the propect buys from you or not, they should be able to say, there was something different about that person. With this thought in their mind you will always have another oportunity for a pitch, mabe even the oportunity to tell them about Jesus.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
FISPA - ISP's grow up
I attended the national meeting of FISPA this week. It was great. The meetings are being well attended and the amount of quality information being shared is growing at each event. The independent ISP industry is maturing. The business plans of the iISP (Independent Internet Service Provider) has changed or is rapidly changing from the single focus delivery of a dumb Internet access pipe (historically resale DSL) to business solutions. The iISP still depends heavily on access but is not maintaining a narrow focus on price restrictive products. Most seem to have realized that they must engage the customer to find out what the customer needs. They now asking questions like; What business process bothers you and what do you fear the most? What business process it the most important to you or to your Customer? These types of questions open up a dialogue that can identify issues that the iISP may be able to provide solutions to resolve. Let me ask you. What are some of the issues that you face in your business?
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