Newsletter topics: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Information Management, Phone Costs, Intellectual Capital, Risk Management, 30% Overhead

• Is a CRM Philosophy at the Center of Your Business?  
• Effective Information Management
• Put Money In Your Pocket - Not In Your Phone Bill 
• Thoughts About Thinking
• Is There A Real Security Professional In The House?
• Variable vs. Fixed Costs and 30% Overhead 

 

It’s the beginning of another glorious work week. You arrive early at your office in anticipation of what lies ahead. Thirty-two e-mails grace your presence. You have seven orders in the pipeline, and leads on 20 more. Your company is small, but it is finally realizing some of the potential you knew it always had. You glance through the e-mails and stop at e-mail # 17, a question from a concerned customer regarding a previous order.

You sit back in your chair and think about where that information is. You look in the folder where it is supposed to be, but it isn’t there. That’s because you moved it when you did your backup last month. You search your database, but the piece of information is not there. Oversight on your part, perhaps, but a business owner can only do so much.  You retreat to your paper files, but the answer isn’t there either. Finally, you ask one of your associates, who quickly relays an answer from memory. Total elapsed time: 32 minutes.

The successful capture and retrieval of information is paramount to the success of an organization. Without a good process,

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The largest potential cost savings in your office is sitting on your desk just waiting to be added to your bottom line, not the phone company's.  A careful telephone bill audit could save you thousands of dollars every year...and doesn't have to cost you an extra penny. So how do you go about securing this money saving evaluation now?  

First of all, time is of the essence.  It’s possible that you’ll only be able to recover over-payments for 12 months even though you have been over paying those charges for years.  That’s unfortunate, but regardless, in today’s economic climate all savings are valuable. 

Still, you may find yourself thinking “I don’t have time to audit phone records! Nor do I know how!” Rest assured, you’re not alone.  After all, who really has time to embark on an audit in this market?   (continue)

“I was thinking the other day…”  I hear that very expression many times throughout the day, or in a professional setting, and it makes me comment to myself, “Were you?” because invariably the person seems almost surprised.  Then, when they explain to me their “thought process”, I understand their confusion.  What often passes for “thinking” is no more “thought” than falling down a steep slope and rolling to the bottom is “walking down a hill”.

Consider this: I was out walking in my neighborhood the other day, a beautiful partly-cloudy mild January day in Houston, thinking about nothing in particular.  Suddenly, I thought that the wind felt cooler.  I thought to look up at the sky.  I thought that the clouds seemed to be darkening.  I thought that it might start to rain soon.  I thought that I had an umbrella just inside my garage door.  I thought that I ought to start walking faster.  I thought that I was pretty stupid for not having brought the umbrella nor a jacket with me.  I thought that the back door was open, but it wasn’t.  I thought that I had a key in my car, but I didn’t.  I thought that my wife would hear me pounding on the door, but she didn’t.  How many different types of thinking were evidenced here? 

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When was your last comprehensive Risk or Threat Assessment?  Nine times out of ten, one was never done, or if one was, it’s by an insurance company for a new or updated policy, but very limited in scope. So cameras are installed, monitoring and/or recording devices are upgraded and new network infrastructure is put in place, something that makes everyone feel better and they can point to. But, it really doesn’t do anything to provide significantly increased security or protection for the money you spent.  Nor does it cover the area which was just used as an entry point for a thief, be it physical or virtual.

In today’s economic climate everyone and every item needs to earn their keep. Companies spend millions on hiring and background checks to make sure they get the right person on the first try. The same should be done when trying to determine what your business really needs or doesn’t need in terms of a security infrastructure.

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