Archive for the 'Business Development' Category
07-03-2008
Can anyone recommend easy to use software that will help me make a short training module?
I am looking to build (and I do not program) an introduction to a new product. I would like to be able to put some video in place with voiceover and then have a q&a type overlay… Any ideas?
Answers:
By Brian Foster
Have a look at Camtasia Studio.
Links:
Captivate is one of the best. Adobe provides templates that will help you develop high quality eLearning.
Links:
- http://elearning.b2bmediaco.com/issues/winter07/winter07_featuredstory_1.ht…
- http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
By James Wheat
Another choice would be Articulate (pronounced like the verb, not the adjective).
To add to what others have said:
Camtasia is good if you want to create a video of your compute screen and package it for replay on other computers. You can download a free trial for 30 days at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp?CMP=KgoogleCStmhome.
Captivate is a great tool and allows you to build simulations of the product. It is a bit more involved than Camtasia and does cost more Camtasia. You can also get a 30 day trial by going go http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/.
Articulate is a very powerful tool. But if you are not going to be building training or product demos the price (over $1,000) is just to much to pay for a casual product. Articulate offers a 15 day trial, which is found at http://www.articulate.com/?gclid=CLX-wPzRpZQCFSgtagodkDzAtA.
You may want to consider WebEx, or a similar service. WebEx has a 14 day trial. If you expect to do this once and never again, you could just start a WebEx session, share your application and/or desktop and record your demo using the WebEx tools. You could even schedule a live class with WebEx to create a different dynamic in the recorded session. For the occasional trainer, WebEx may be your best approach.
There is no simple answer. It all hinges on what your time frame is, what your learning curve is with the technology, your available budget, and your time to workout the ideal flow through your new product so the demo shows off your new product well.
Links:
- http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp?CMP=KgoogleCStmhome
- http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
- http://webex.com/
Please contact these experts provided from the field of training and coaching…
They have written books, and run their own coaching academies/institutions.
Ajay Merchant also suggests these experts on this topic:
By Red Resener
This question sounds two fold…. First you could capture canned sims showing off your new product (Im guessing this is some kind of software) with Captivate/Camtasia, both are timeline driven and will allow you to add hi-lights and call-outs as well as allow you to edit voice-overs and other goodies like that. But, you will need to understand a little bit about video editing to make quick work of either app.
Second, you will need to know a bit about delivery. Before you export your course from either CAP/CAM you will need to ask yourself — is this going on CDROM, into an LMS, or just web-based delivery?!?!?
If you are unsure about any of this I would be happy to talk you thru it, or you could call Steve Conrad or myself at MEDIAPRO. 425-483-4700
Links:
Red Resener also suggests this expert on this topic:
By John Jamison
Hi Barbara, I use Articulate to put something together rather quickly, as it ties directly to PowerPoint which you use to actually build the piece. When I want something more robust…with more interactivity and interest, I use a program called Mediator, from Matchware.
I currently use Captivate to create rapid e-Learning. It is user friendly and is a great tool for creating software simulations or soft skill branching scenarios. You can insert videos (which get converted to Flash format for usability) and easily create interactive quiz questions for Q&A. As someone mentioned earlier, there are several templates available which you can easily change to your own company branding. As well, you can import PowerPoint slides or files for easy conversion.
Additional websites which may be helpful include Captivate tips, Tutorials on Adobe Developer Center and a well known Captivate blogger:
Links:
- http://www.raisingaimee.co.uk/
- http://www.adobe.com/devnet/captivate/
- http://blogs.adobe.com/silke.fleischer/
By Rob Phillips
I recommend CaptureCam Pro.
http://www.cintinel.com/
you need Adobe (macromedia) authorware 7
Links:
There are so many factors that would hinge on a good fit for you on the product side.
What is your budget?
What is your proficiency with learning technologies?
Do you need a host platform?
What type of learning activities are you looking to include in the learning?
I would be happy to discuss this with you and recommend whatever I can to you.
Links:
Try Jing, it records your screen actions (you can limit what on your screen is recorded) and your voice, so you can give a demo. The limit is 5 minutes per video. The tool also enables quick screen grabs of whatever you want on your screen. We’ve used it with great success. Oh, and it’s free and easy to use.
Links:
By Peter B. Giblett MBCS, CITP, LLB
I would echo Brian’s recommendation. Camtasia Studio is easy to use and inexpensive. Go to the Tech Smith website.
By Sanjay Vyas
CamStudio is similar to Camtasia and Captivate but its free. You can create AVI or SWF of your screen movement (including mouse and keyboard) annotate them with speech balloons and do a voice over.
Links:
Look up www.epiance.com
By Jack Jensen
I also vote for Articulate (www.Articulate.com). To see the result of incorporating video into an Articulate lesson, go to www.AmerSolutions.com/rt2v (2nd link below).
Links:
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07-01-2008
Who is the C level officer responsible for saving the global organization money, increasing efficiencies and ROI in staffing and recruiting activities? If this person is not in HR, so who is it then?
Answers:
The short answer is ALL of them.
In my experience it is NOT HR that is the budget holder, so it is the responsibility of each and every department.
The only time I have ever seen it be HR’s responsibility is when a diktat was handed down to cancel all current recruitment (but then there is normally an exception).
There are some interesting answers here. I know the CFO is always looking to reduce costs, but they do not control staffing budgets for each department in most organisations, eventhough they try to.
By Mark J. Ely
In most organizations that I’ve looked at or been a part of, the HR department head reports to the COO.
By David Schneider
If you look at any of the Dilbert books “Catbert” the evel HR Director is the gate keeper, and chases the good outside talent away.
All humor aside, this is very true. It is rare that anybody from HR “found” me any talent. The last two hires that I did where “HR” had to interview, they found reasons not to hire the person, even if the person was qualified and the folks on my staff gave a thumbs up.
The answer to your question is really simple. It starts at the top and flows down. The culture and the drive or lack of drive to hire the right talent and temperment, and the leader that sets the course to nuture and grow internal talent is the CEO, followed closely by the COO.
You can argue that it is the HR VP’s job. But if the CEO and the COO do not support, or they ignore the tallen issue, the HR VP is limited in what they can do. And even if the CEO and the COO give “lip service”, the HR VP is still powerless.
Every example of a company that has a dynamic workdorce or motivated and energetic associates will be a company where the CEO and the COO not only say that “The People are the Power”, but they Make It Happen.
Now, the second part of the question is this, Who in the organizatuion makes the decisions that money needs to be saved and that ROI needs to be delivered in the HR arena? It is the CFO. “Count the Money” can sit on a department budget and insist on improvements, or cuts (they are not one in the same).
To wrap up the package, all of the above are responcible. The HR VP makes the gears turn. The CEO and COO lead (or don’t lead) where the HR car goes, and the CFO xdecisdes how much money is going into the “HR Mobile”.
By Orhan Bag
Mostly, COO or CFO…
Sometimes, lets say CDO, Chief Development Officer in charge of Business Development of “internal” business structure
Some structures also have CMO in charge of Management of corporate structure; in that cafe CMO.
By Barry Williams
The reason this is a valid question is that there is no good answer in most organizations. If there were a consistent answer then companies like Bearing Point, Accenture and others who do HR consulting and outsourcing would be out of business.
Everyone says its the COO, and they should and do care about saving money and improving efficiencies, but in my experience, the day to day operations often distract them from acting on HR related improvements where changes may be “unpopular” actions like reducing headcounts or implementing new software.
The root problem is that HR is expected to be a cost center, and like a support center is often regarded as a necessary evil where only minor attention is required.
To get more attention at the C level, HR leaders must do a better job selling the efficiencies that can be made at times where there is a heavy focus on the bottom line. Showing that changes rolled out over a 6-12 month period can save large dollar amounts is difficult to ignore when things are tight and stockholders are nervous.
Everyone in the global organization is responsible for saving money, increasing efficiencies, and ROI in staffing & recruitment activities (and all others I might add) Bryan.
If there is one single person to hold accountable, that person most certainly would be in HR/Admin. Makes sense doesn’t it?
If the CAO [Chief Administrative Officer] isn’t responsible for this task, then there is no real reason for HR organizations to exist. All of the functions could (and perhaps should) be outsourced. Historically, HR executives have not sought nor desired this accountability. It is much easier for them to develop policies, procedures, and directives for others to struggle with than it is to actually be accountable for their results.
By Pankaj Dutt
I would further add to David’s response with fully agreeing with it….most of the organizations have separated talent management and staffing making it an independent function reporting in to business head
I think HR has almost lost its position on talent management and its role is more oriented towards performance management, policy custodian and employee engagement.
Some of the recent titles which you could easily find in companies today are head of organization development, head of leadership development etc and considering the business imperative of talent, these roles are closely aligned to operations or business. IT industry is a typical example where talent management is a core function for them and hence closely aligned with operations
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06-09-2008
How important is database independence in an ERP solution?
Is database independence desirable in ERP solutions?
If so, what are the technical or financial implications of such a choice. Especially when the pilot project would be scaled up through a separate contract in future.
Clarification added:
My summary of the answers given by experts:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd6vkw8k_77z6dvf6gt (Too long to fit here, sorry!)
The question has been reopened to allow the experts to comment on the summary and to point out any errors, should they wish to do so.
Many thanks to all those who answered!
By Sunil Bajpai
Peter’s Answer:
Database independence certainly is desirable. You should assess what is best for your organisation. However it is important to note that choice of database is not always possible e.g. if you select Microsoft Dynamics then SQL Server it is! Same with Oracle!
At the end of the day it is the business process that must be satisfied by the solution adopted - and this needs to be front and centre during the whole of the product selection phase.
There will be both technical and financial implications to each of the choices you make. If you go for a pilot please ensure that the only costs you pay will be those associated with non-selection of that product. e.g if you pilot product A then determine that product A operated satisfactorily then license costs are simply scaled up to meet the full implementation and that you do not pay twice.
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06-09-2008
Any advice for making the case to upper level management that it’s a good business decision to let highly skilled developers work at a distance?
I need to make the case, quickly, to management that keeping the highly skilled programmers on our team by allowing them to work from home is better than losing them when they close our local office. Any advice?
Clarification added:
Thanks for all of the excellent and thoughtful responses! To clarify a bit, we’re looking at a timeframe of weeks, not months to convince upper management of our case. And, maybe that characterization is not completely fair. Of course, management doesn’t want to lose most of a highly skilled team that has 75% or more of the application knowledge. It’s a new funding source that is putting this constraint on us. I’m trying to collect tips and evidence they can use to try to convince business types who sounds pretty old-school in their thinking. As one respondent said, it may be a situation with little hope, but, for the sake of my colleagues, I feel I need to try.
Peter’s answer:
Just because your team “has 75% or more of the application knowledge” does not make them irreplaceable. It is an unfortunate fact of life that the more irreplaceable you think you are the more likely you are to be dumped.
It seems that the management has made the decision. But I would simply offer a possible solution that allows your staff to provide contracted-out support for say 6 months that way there is smother transition.
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06-09-2008
Do you consider printed media as polluting / environment-unfriendly?
We all know that print media uses paper, which is a depleting resource. Even chemicals required to print / process / decorate paper is not really eco-friendly. Have you ever thought on these lines?
Peter’s answer:
Firstly lets deal with the question of paper. Contrary to you supposition there is no reason why paper should be a depleting resource. Agreed we can be more eco-friendly in producing ‘white’ paper (but who says paper has to be precisely white? or that we cannot have eco-friendly inks for printing), but paper itself is a farmed resource that has been farmed for a long time, and there is no reason why this cannot continue well into the future.
The rule for paper production is “as you chop one tree down, you plant a new one”. Remember that paper is biodegradable, which is something we cannot say about plastic bags from the local supermarket.
So what is the alternative to printed media? eMedia - well this is one of them. I will make a similar mis-assumption eMedia is polluting and environmentally unfriendly!
The reason I make this statement is that much of out electricity comes from polluting sources - coal, gas, oil, and nuclear. The truth is on the whole we are using the wrong type of electricity - we should be using more wind, solar, and water. But for what comes into our offices and homes is is all simply electricity, acquired from the grid.
I do not believe human society will ever be truly paperless, although we should all contribute as well as we can - perhaps things like PDF invoices instead of paper ones will assist - we have done this for a couple of years now.
Personally I favour the use of printed books (well fiction or informational works anyway). For instructions on how to use a software package, then electronic manuals is more than acceptable than paper versions, and I am 50% of the way accepting that access to newspapers is better through the net - although I still have some issues.
I am against abandoning print media, but I think changes are essential. Some are already afoot - check the current crisis in the magazine industry as readers (particularly the younger ones) desert in droves.
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05-01-2008
Can a Business Plan be Wiki-based?
The whole idea of “secret information” is pre-wiki; for this denotes the idea that the privately held “information” has reached its highest potential, and that to make it public would only make it less.
The whole value behind the wiki concept is that “information” is never truly “finished,” it can
always be analyzed and edited from a different point of view, most likely making it all the more valuable.
Is this concept suitable with a complete or a part of a business plan of a new activity?
Which part of the plan are more appropriate for this view (if there are any)?
Do you know any example of a successful improvement in this way?
Peter’s Answer:
I do like the idea. My gut feel is that the software behind the average Wiki is not yet robust enough. I personally start any idea with a mind map, which is an excellent starting tool and will express ideas well. I would expand this to a document once there is enough meat behind it.
There are some alternatives to Wiki’s such as shared documents (available through products such as Share Point).
If you are talking about business planning then I suppose any sharable form of document is fine to use, but this is different from a specific business plan. I assume security to the documents is limited to the relevant audience.
For a full business plan you will need to build market analysis, trends, growth, and P&L projections, etc. In order to do this properly you will need some analytical capability (which for the average small business means using Excel or another spreadsheet). There will need to be multiple what-if projections included - again possible through Excel.
The other issue comes to tracking reality against the plan. To do this you will need to get at a minimum some business plan software (price probably in the range $100 to $250 for a product with reasonable capabilities - shared plans may add to the cost).
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04-23-2008
How much should an IT Division spend on IT for that is only for itself?
What is world class as a percentage of total IT spend?
I’m thinking of IT tools to manage systems, internal web sites, project management tools, security and audit tools, bespoke billing systems
Also has anyone got examples of good tools to use, that help an IT business add value to the business it supports?
Peter’s answer:
This is an interesting question which will bring much debate.
IMHO all IT spending is business based spending (or should be to support business functions in some way). That said I firmly believe that everyone should have the right tools for the job, that is no different in IT.
With each of the items you have identified there is a distinct business component here, let me enhance each of your examples.
IT tools to manage systems (including security tools) - why are you managing the systems? Surely it is to provide business benefit! Ergo any tools purchased in this area enhance IT’s capability to support the business. The typical example in this category are DBA tools etc.
Internal web sites should all provide a business benefit - usually this starts at allowing all staff access to things like policies and procedures. With SharePoint today this capability is becoming much more comprehensive and will grow as business demands increase.
Project Management tools - An essential part of the delivery of business projects. Please note I said “business projects” as I do not believe there is any such thing as an IT project, but IT should be a facilitator for business change.
Audit tools - Audit and compliance is becoming more and more crucial to corporate life. All IT change should be audited, so you had better have the tools to support you. Again this is also a business concern, especially with the increasing number of compliance laws being enacted, in the UK, Europe and in other locations.
Bespoke billing system - why should this be different than the corporate billing system? Most financial systems handle internal cross charges.
I will leave tool selection to others…
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04-20-2008
Is the paperless office an urban myth?
Peter’s Answer:
I try! Currently my laptop does no printing. Anything that I need to keep I ‘print’ to Acrobat, including things paper records that I have to keep - I have even used the signature validation components of Adobe, the problem is that the outside world keeps demanding paper proofs.
My willingness to go paperless is not enough. We still have financial and legal issues to overcome in this area though. This is the toughest nut to crack.
It is those demands that need to be dealt with before we can go truly paperless.
On the flip-side I do find a paper copy essential if I am reviewing a document - but then again I will not read eBooks or eMagazines, I find paper infinitely better.
BTW: please note that we should not be concerned about paper usage because from an ecological viewpoint paper manufacture has always included re-planting an element of recycling. We are not cutting down the rain-forest to produce paper.
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04-17-2008
What is the best way to identify your pain?
There is a question posted below that asked: “What’s the best way to approach you about doing business (b2b)?”
The overwhelming answer was; Know my business model, identify a problem or pain and propose a solution. So my question would be what is the best way to identify your pain or problem.
Obviously if you know someone who works at the prospect company you can identify what problems or needs your company can solve but if you don’t already have that “insight” how are you supposed to know what problem the company is having.
Every company has multiple solutions for different problems and I could certainly make an educated guess that because XYZ Company has this problem and your company is similar that you are likely to have the same problem but I certainly find it annoying when someone makes the assumption that just because I am in sales I MUST need sales training, or I MUSt have bad habits that I need them to “help me correct”. I might need help but the fact that someone makes that assumption automatically turns me off because it makes me seem like I can’t do my job! What an insult! You think I am sitting here all day waiting for you to call and save me with your solution!
Since companies don’t have a section on their website that say “This is a PROBLEM” or “Here is my need!” How can a responsible sales rep determine your need or pain without wasting you time by setting up a “fact finding meeting” or “educating you about their offerings”?
Peter’s Answer:
I think that there are several things that can be done
Firstly - there are certain problems common to the whole business world right now.
Secondly - there are a number of business problems that are common to all firms competing in the same marketplace, these problems can be inferred when making part of the sales call.
Thirdly you could send a survey out to all forms in that vertical market.
But that said I have known plenty of salesmen who have setup sales calls in order to carry out market research. I am aware that on at least one occasion this approach resulted in a sale - the buyer commented on the unusual approach and was well impressed.
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04-12-2008
Does anyone have an estimate of the global number of small and medium-sized businesses?
Peter’ answer:
A lot may depend on your definition of Small and Medium sized businesses.
I once heard the statistic that in the UK 5,000 companies are created every day. The vast majority of these are 1 or 2 person organisations. Over 70% close before the end of year 1. Additionally over 1 million corporations file a return annually.
Now that may be specific to the UK, but here in North America I cannot see the number of corporations created daily as fewer than the UK number.
my guess (and it can only be a very wild guess) is that there are probably more than 50 million worldwide.
Clarification added:
Regarding corporate size: how do you measure and how do you count un-incorporated bodies. Here in Canada it would not be worth my while incorporating for a small business it costs $1,500 - but I can register a trading name for $80. I suspect that the majority of trading companies (small & medium size) are in North America, Europe, Russia, South Africa, Australia, and India. Outside those areas there is less encouragement to setup on your own.
I once heard a guideline of sizes as Small business being less than $1m or 100 people. Medium being harder to define as many companies prefer to be defined in the “Medium” space than in the “Large” space.
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