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Happy New Year! I love to share the many photos I have taken of places, people and things throughout the country and beyond. Each month our headline photo will be something new and different. We hope you enjoy. Keep in mind, we don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give us your feedback. By all means, forward to a friend using the link at the bottom of the Newsletter. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!

Retooling

Every year, I try to take some time to question and evaluate the past year so that I can retool for the next year. It isn't always obvious or planned. It isn't always a retreat or a conscious getaway that affords me the time to consider the changes that have taken place and those about to happen. Sometimes, it is tension in the back of the neck that tells me a shift is in the air. The tectonic plates of business are always in flux, sometimes change comes quietly, sometimes catastrophically.

The prime directive must always remain the same however. Companies that span lifetimes provide true value. In the eyes of the customer, the service provided must always be unique or superior. Like the great Jack Nicholson line in As Good as it Gets, “you make me want to be a better man”; no matter what you do, you want to help make your customer be a better company.

I have witnessed time and again, in those clients that I have known the longest that they always retool, re-imagine, re-evaluate. They may change procedures or service methods, but never deviate from the prime directive. They may modify the sales approach or adjust product lines but never stop providing a unique service. They may adopt new tools or forge new partnerships, but they always have their customers’ needs in clear view.

With small businesses, profit is essential, but the prime directive is always the value of the service you provide to the person on the other end of the hand you shake, your customer.  It is principles like this that make capitalism work. Those who forget this are doomed to failure or dissolution.

Collective Conversation

In 2015, Microsoft took some big steps in telephony – but of course is stumbling. Microsoft is positioning Skype for Business to be the unified integrated communications solution for tomorrow. Where Cisco and Avaya have the market cornered today, Microsoft has its aim on unseating Cisco and is focused to deliver “a complete, enterprise-grade communications solution at global scale with Office 365”. Yes, they have been working on this for a long time. After all, we implemented Lync (now Skype for Business) in February of 2013, almost three years ago. It has been difficult to implement in an environment requiring a switchboard operator and console. There has been no real change in the last three years, but it looks like that is about to change. Microsoft is going to begin providing its own voice calling plans as part of its Office 365. An E3 license with the  Skype for Business Cloud PBX add-on and a voice calling plan. 

The problem right now is that the technology is in flux, no one knows how to do anything. There is no experience. There is no Microsoft Support. The installations are not wide-spread. Not all users have the option to add this service to their Skype for Business application.  TRI is scheduled to attend the 8 hour Skype for Business Academy later this month in an effort to get up to speed on Microsoft’s latest offering.

Why do we care?  Because unified communications is the future of collaboration and it currently lacks a real-time link between voice, video and data.  What unified communications will be to us in the future is a collection of collaborative tools all intertwined and connected on the same network. A group, any number more than one, will be able to have collective conversation using multiple communication devices and peripherals – screens, tablets, headphones and microphones.  I can’t wait, it is long-overdue.

Subscription Software

Is here to stay! If you think that subscription software is a fad, think again. Microsoft, Adobe, and all web-based software (SaaS) have converted to subscription services. Why?  It works! It allows them to manage their customers, manage updates, control software piracy, insure uniform usage which simplifies support and reduces support expense.

This is true for software firms that have millions of users. For small software houses, not so much, purchase and support is still the standard practice.