Would you Like Some Whine with That?

I have a coworker who complains to me about everything that happens to her at work. While I’m a good listener, her constant interruptions affect my work. I don’t think going to our manager is the right thing to do. And I’m hesitant to strain our relationship since we’re on the same team. What should I do? Should I tell her she’s complaining too much, ask her to stop because her interruptions disrupt my work or be supportive and let her vent? 

— Michelle 

Remember the famous episode of I Love Lucy when Lucy and Ethel work at the candy factory? The duo had a simple job: wrap each piece of candy as the candy comes down the conveyor belt. The manager saw they were doing well, so she sped up the assembly line. Soon, Lucy and Ethel stuffed candy in their shirts, chef’s hats and mouths.

What if Lucy and Ethel had spoken up and admitted the conveyor belt moved too fast? Maybe they would have been fired or maybe not. Doing nothing in Michelle’s situation, though, will not stop the conveyor belt full of a coworker’s grievances. The choices are to suffer in silence and drown in candy and complaints — or take action to change things using these reader suggestions:

• Try standing up.
• Be polite, but direct.
• Ask questions to solve the problem. 

Got another great tip for dealing with chronic complainers? Join the conversation by leaving a comment. Or ask your own question. 

Try standing up 

Do you have extra chairs in your office or cubicle? Ruby Taylor encourages removing the extra chairs or putting papers in them so no one can sit down. Taylor offers another way to shorten visits. “When the person comes to you, if you are sitting, stand up [as if you are leaving to go elsewhere] and if that person doesn’t take the cue, say you are on your way to xyz and you only have five minutes to spare,” Taylor says.

Be polite, but direct 

The answer could be simple. Tell the person that you have work to do. A reader discovered this after losing patience with a chronic complainer. “I would have liked to have handled it better, but I lost my patience at some point and told her that if her job/boss/career was so bad, she should just look for another job; I needed to get work done, and we could leave the complaints for lunch time. Surprisingly, it worked! At that moment, she just stared at me surprised and a little bit mad, but later on our relationship went well, and we didn’t have any more issues.”

The reader figured out that the direct approach worked well. Being “polite” can also do wonders. Pick up a few phrases like, “I have one minute, and then I need to get back to work” or “I have a phone call in two minutes and need to prepare for it.”

It’s awkward to tell someone you don’t have time for complaining, but you won’t have to get creative with your chairs.

Ask questions to solve the problem 

Sometimes you can shorten the conversation by probing the coworker and turning the complaints into a simple problem-solution exercise. Sarah Gonnella believes that negative energy can easily evolve into more negatives. “What can you do to solve the issue and turn it into a positive? Each time she’s negative or complaining, say, ‘Yep, things happen for a purpose so what’s the lesson or what are you doing to fix/solve it?’ If you keep saying the same thing, she will realize you won’t allow her to just keep complaining.”

This approach forces the complainer to do something about the problem or stop complaining about it. Don’t let your office become a candy factory

Meryl K. Evans is senior editor at InternetVIZ and the content maven behind the Connected Digest, B2B Social Media Digest and Professional Services Journal. Follow her on Twitter @merylkevans.

No News Is Not Always Good News

Tarmac Syndrome is the feeling you get when you’re sitting on a plane in the middle of the runway and not knowing why. This feeling can happen in the workplace. Now being annoyed with the delay is a different thing. Knowing this, what makes you feel better about Tarmac Syndrome? Information. Good leaders communication as much as possible, even if it’s not new information. It reassures employees.

How does communicating no new news make a difference?

[ Read original article ]

Your Change Initiative

You may have gone through change initiatives. Some may have gone OK. Some failed. How can you ensure success for change programs especially when you’re dealing with: “Odds are, your employees don’t care about what you care about.” Change the clarity focus and you may just see improvement.

How can you recast your company’s story to see improvements?

[ Read original article ]

Great Boss is Confident

It’s OK to have doubts as long as you remain confident. The article shows how strong leaders have the “ability to act confidently on what they know, while doubting their knowledge.” When a team works on improving processes, they are confident they will make it work while they remain unsure about possibilities of failure. This keeps them in line in anticipate problems so they can be fixed before they start or as soon as they occur.

Why do you think the balance between confidence and doubt works?

[ Read original article ]

Respond Rather Than React

Kevin Eikenberry explains the difference between responding and reacting and how it applies to leadership. “The difference is in preparation and thought,” he says. Understanding the difference and pursuing a responsive approach will help you and your time improve decision-making skills and make better choices.

How can you respond rather than react to employees?

[ Read original article ]

Survey reveals growing interest in business solutions
by Jeanne Urich and Dave Hofferberth of Service Performance Insight 

Business application adoption by all sizes and types of billable service organizations has steadily gained momentum since professional services (PS) industry-specific business applications came to market over a decade ago. While every billable service organization uses some type of system (albeit manual spreadsheets) to capture costs, bill for time and account for revenue, many do not take advantage of the available business solutions that could help them improve operational performance. 

In May 2010, 244 billable professional service organizations (PSOs) representing a variety of PS disciplines and organization sizes responded to SPI Research’s business application survey. Respondents include PS business executives and CEOs of independent firms. 

The report provides PS executives and software application providers insight into the level of market adoption, integration and satisfaction with core PS business applications. The report also examines which PS industry sectors and applications are moving to the cloud and how soon.

Market adoption is improving

SPI Research found varied levels of application adoption, with ERP or “Financials” most prevalent, CRM second and remote service delivery third. Reported market adoption of PSA, HCM and BI was lower than anticipated. 

Professional service software providers break down their applications into a variety of core product modules that emphasize the management of costs, clients and resources. The three most commonly used applications include: 

∆        Financial management (ERP) is the primary application required to accurately collect, bill and report financial transactions. Traditional ERP providers dominate the PS financial application segment. Intuit’s QuickBooks is the overall leading platform, particularly for PSOs with fewer than 100 employees. Microsoft, Sage, Deltek and NetSuite are the primary ERP providers for mid-size organizations, and Oracle and SAP are the dominant ERP suppliers for large organizations. 

Although Oracle and SAP supply core financial functionality, their PS clients are increasingly using dedicated cloud-based CRM and PSA applications. These traditional vendors should take note of the erosion of their service industry client base toward easier-to-use, cheaper-to-deploy, PS-specific business applications. As the PS business gains stature and prominence within traditional technology manufacturing companies, PS executives are likely to defect toward more PS-specific, cloud-based applications.

∆        Client relationship management (CRM) supports the management of client relationships and is designed to improve sales and marketing effectiveness. In terms of PS adoption, surprisingly, commercial CRM adoption at 86 percent is rapidly closing in on ERP adoption (94 percent). This surge in service industry CRM adoption underscores the increased emphasis service organizations are placing on service selling and marketing. 

Approximately 14 percent of respondents reported the use of “none or homegrown,” and 22 percent use “other” CRM applications, which means 64 percent use a CRM solution from an industry-recognized software provider. Salesforce.com is the most dominant application provider in the study with 34 percent market share. No other vendor in any category comes close to this commanding market share. 

∆        Professional service automation (PSA) solutions provide the systems basis for initiation, planning, execution, close and control of projects and resource management. Unexpectedly, 44 percent of respondents reported using “none or homegrown” as their PSA solution; an additional 21 percent reported “other” while only 35 percent use a solution from an industry-recognized software provider. This lack of PSA penetration represents significant market opportunity for both ERP and PSA-specific providers.

NetSuite, having acquired OpenAir and QuickArrow, is the PSA market-share leader with over 16 percent of the market. 

Other applications gaining momentum in the PS sector are outlined below. While not as commonly used as the three mentioned previously, more sophisticated PS operations are starting to deploy HCM, BI and remote service delivery tools. 

∆        Remote service delivery and collaboration tools allow staff to conduct Web-based meetings and collaborate from anywhere. According to the survey, 81 percent of respondents use remote service delivery and Web-based conferencing solutions, which demonstrates a high rate of user adoption. The survey indicates the use of these tools has rapidly become the “ante to play” for service providers, and the tools will soon be as ubiquitous and necessary as office and email productivity tools. Webex and Citrix are the market-share leaders in remote service delivery and collaboration tools. 

∆        Human capital management (HCM) covers payroll, time and labor tracking, tax and benefits. Most ERP applications provide some level of human resource management, but a new breed of human capital management applications is coming to the fore to offer recruiting, skill tracking and training, performance, career and compensation management from recruitment through termination. 

Only 30 percent of respondents use dedicated HCM solutions from either their ERP provider or from specialized HCM providers, which signifies extremely low HCM service sector penetration. ADP, a traditional payroll outsourcer, garnered top market-share honors in the HCM category. SPI Research predicts HCM adoption will rapidly improve as new cloud-based tools become an essential ingredient for turbo-charging the people-based service business. 

∆        Business intelligence (BI) is the integration, management, use, analysis and reporting of business information to improve decision-making. BI service industry penetration has continued to grow and now stands at 43 percent. Primary providers are the market-share leader SAP, having acquired Business Objects, closely followed by IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Informatica. 

PS industry moves to cloud solutions

One of the most interesting trends is the service sector movement toward cloud-based solutions. Both large and small organizations demonstrate a strong preference for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions with 46 percent of the organizations expressing a preference for SaaS, as compared to 25 percent that prefer on-premise applications. 

For firms planning to move their applications to the cloud, most plan to do so within three years, which means the SaaS sector will continue its double-digit revenue and market-share growth. 

SaaS considerations

The roots of SaaS actually go back to timesharing in the 1980s. When re-envisioned a decade ago as a means of providing “browser-based” or “thin-client” application access, it would have been hard to predict the sweeping changes cloud-based computing would make on both the software industry and application users. 

This study shows the service industry overwhelmingly endorses SaaS, and many firms are transitioning to it. Cloud-adoption has been greatest for PSA, closely followed by CRM, HCM and BI. ERP is the only application segment where the majority of organizations have and plan to maintain an on-premise solution.

The promise of SaaS

So what’s behind the service industry stampede to cloud-based applications? Several factors make SaaS a perfect fit for the service industry, but one the most important considerations is that service providers are increasingly operating virtual organizations. 

The days of hiring by geography and dispatching hordes of consultants to work for months or years on a client site are gone. Project team size and duration continue to decline, and engagements are becoming smaller and more iterative, making flexible staffing and virtual deployment a necessity. 

A growing phenomenon has been less work performed on the client site, not only to minimize travel and facility costs, but also because virtual projects are proving to be more successful and take advantage of the best available resources, regardless of location. Cloud computing is clearly the best solution for virtual organizations and reflects and supports their Internet-intensive workstyle. 

The second important consideration is that most service organizations do not have numerous or, in many cases any, IT staff. This makes the prospect of running a large on-premise datacenter with a robust IT staff and support for loads of customizations an investment many service executives abhor. In most service executive’s minds, headcount represents revenue, not a cost, so the idea of turning responsibility for application development and maintenance over to a cloud-based vendor makes a lot of sense. 

Cloud computing offers the big advantage of requiring limited to no IT staff, and installations typically take weeks instead of the months or years required by on-premise solutions. Cloud computing allows service executives to do what they do best — solve complex business problems for clients, without having to worry about a lot of IT staff. 

Another straw tipping the balance toward SaaS is the applications themselves. The leading service industry SaaS providers have done a superb job of focusing on the business processes essential to the service industry. As SaaS applications have matured, the vendors have focused great attention on ease-of-use, powerful business process workflow tools and the ability to easily modify screens, forms and reports to reflect unique business requirements. 

All of this adds up to service-specific applications, which reflect and represent best practices. Since services are people-based businesses, service executives are more than willing to change business processes if they see a better way to run the business. Most service-specific cloud solutions offer excellent out-of-the-box support for core business processes like quote-to-cash, prospect-to-project, time and expense capture, and billing and project accounting. 

Lastly, beyond all the hype, the economics of SaaS are compelling. SaaS applications outshine on-premise applications in terms of upfront cost, deployment time and total cost of ownership. 

Just like outsourcing, the allure of lower cost was the initial reason organizations started to shift to SaaS, but the reason they stay with SaaS is because it gives them greater control over their business with less hassle at a predictable cost. SaaS may not be right for the largest and most complex service organizations, but it is a solution worth considering for the majority of PSOs. 

The allure of business solutions 

The PS sector has developed quite an appetite for business solutions in the past decade. From the smallest PSOs to the largest, the sector continues to increase its use of information as a competitive, productivity tool to increase performance. 

The market is changing, with new solution providers and different deployment options available, making it much easier and more cost-effective to implement business applications. 

To learn more, the complete 46-page report, which contains 60 insightful charts and tables, is now available for $295. Click here to see the table of contents and purchase the report.

Raising Prices

A bad economy isn’t an excuse for dropping your rates or avoiding a rate increase. Frank Cespedes, a Harvard Business School senior lecturer, has researched the topic of prices in tougher economic times, which he refers to as “performance pricing.” He says, “Pricing builds or destroys value faster than almost any business action, especially in tough and uncertain economic conditions when price is a key and visible strategic choice.”

What do you think of “performance pricing”?

[ Read original article ]

Sticking to my Diet

I’m on a diet and prefer to keep it to myself. It’s not my coworkers’ business, and I don’t care to explain myself. I don’t want to go out to lunch because most restaurants do not have choices that fit with my type of diet. Plus, most of them don’t have nutritional information posted online to ensure I make the right choices. 

My coworkers sometimes push me to go to lunch even after I turn them down. I know I’m not the only one in this situation. How can I deal with this without revealing the details of my diet? Or do I need to suffer the embarrassment of going to the restaurant and only ordering no-calorie drinks? 

— Susie

While Susie is smart to stick to her plan, she also needs to make a lifestyle change to keep the weight off. It makes sense to avoid restaurants in the earlier stages of the diet, but does she have to give up lunches out with coworkers forever?

Tracy O’Connell, associate professor at University of Wisconsin-River Falls, puts a positive spin on the situation by pointing out that the coworkers want to spend time with the dieting employee. “I wouldn’t want to alienate them and seem disinterested in their friendship and companionship, which is good for self-affirmation (‘They like me as I am, even without the weight loss.’”) and also for smoother sailing at work and possible future networking,” O’Connell says.

Readers and experts recognize that alienation is not the way — They provide suggestions for dealing with the awkward situation without sacrificing diet goals and coworker relationships:

• Just say “No.”
• Go, but order smart.
• Ask coworkers for support.

Got another great tip for dealing with the food badgers? Join the conversation by leaving a comment. Or ask your own question. 

Just say “No.” 

You can turn down a lunch request without turning coworkers’ faces red. Ken Simpson, vice president of services with ACI Worldwide, suggests saying, “Thanks, but I have already made plans for lunch today” or “No thanks, I brought my lunch from home today.”

Another approach is to put a monetary spin on it per Melissa Kaupke’s suggestion. “A lot of people (myself included) have found that people are a lot more receptive if instead of claiming a diet, you claim that, either you are broke, or you are trying to save money for something specific and are doing this by not eating out. Many people actually stick to this and then DO buy themselves something nice with the saved money when they reach their goal weight or a milestone.”

A reader encourages people in this situation not to feel embarrassed or pressured into doing something they don’t want to do. “I’d say something like, ‘Thanks a bunch for the offer to join you, sounds like fun, but I’m trying to lose a few pounds, and eating out isn’t on my weight loss plan. Thanks anyway.’ Then walk away. You don’t owe any more of an explanation. They understand it’s not their company you don’t like.”

You might also call the restaurants in your area and ask if they have nutritional info somewhere so that you can perhaps add them to your approved restaurant list. Then when your peers ask, you’ll go if you can pick the place. Good luck!

Go, but order smart

More restaurants (some states require it) are publishing their meals’ nutrition facts on their websites or menu. Look up the nutrition info or call the restaurant before you go. Maybe you can find something that works with your plan, and you’ll be prepared to order. Deb Germana, an office manager who has to watch her sodium intake, says she often goes out to eat when asked and orders a salad with oil and vinegar, or just the coffee and fruit. “I do try to join in. Sometimes I excuse myself NOT citing my diet as the reason. It’s OK to tell them you’re on a special diet — I have.

“At first it was a little awkward, but having approached it with no sorrow for myself, they all now understand, or at least accept it. Face it cheerfully and optimistically. Then there’s no reason for them to feel sympathy — which is not a burden you want to place on them.”

What about going to a coffee shop or encouraging everyone to bring lunch? Whitnee Hawthorne, owner of Get and Stay Fit, says, “Rather than refusing your coworkers out right, say you plan to eat at your desk and then offer to meet them for coffee later in the afternoon (you can order unsweetened tea or black coffee without too much prying). If you live in an area with decent weather, suggest a park lunch. That way, everyone is forced to BYOBB (bring you own brown bag). Also, if there is at least one restaurant in the area that offers something you think you can eat, proactively invite them to lunch there.”

Whether or not you can find the nutritional information, you can always special order your food. Restaurants comply most of the time. “In many cases, the cook can prepare a dish differently to comply with dietary choices like Susie’s. She may also consider making restaurant suggestions to her coworkers, so they go to a restaurant that works better for her. There is no reason for her to be embarrassed — She only needs to tell her coworkers that she is trying to eat healthier, and maybe they will follow in her footsteps,” says Corinne Kantor, The Food Cop.

Instead of worrying about what to order, especially at a restaurant that doesn’t make nutrition information available, Kaupke encourages bringing your own lunch. “Yes, people really do this, and as long as you tip the server for your water or other services, it’s totally fine to do! Or drink water. And don’t be embarrassed by it,” Kaupke says.

Ask coworkers for support

What’s the worst thing that could happen if you let your coworkers know you’re on a diet? “It is difficult to be on a diet and get the support of your coworkers if they have no idea that you are on a diet. I suggest that you tell your coworkers that you need their support while you watch the foods you eat,” says Kathi Elster, K Squared Enterprises. “You do not need to discuss this further. Just let them know you are not rejecting them; you are only rejecting certain foods. Also, you never know; they just might support you and be more sensitive.”

Marc Tinsley, founder of Fitness for the Rest of Us, provides another way to look at the whole diet thing. “Never say diet. It brings so much negativity with it. Just tell your friends that you have simply decided to start taking better care of yourself and that you feel that eating out is unhealthy. It’s more positive, and you don’t have to give any details. If fact, they may be the ones who find it necessary to try to justify their unhealthy choices,” Tinsley says.

Hawthorne provides final food for thought, “You have every right to your privacy. The research shows that having a support group during weight loss leads to faster and more sustainable results.” So you may be surprised at the support you get from your coworkers as you make a permanent lifestyle change.

With this advice, power lunches no longer have to be about overpowering you, but empowering you instead. What other ways can you deal with the “Let’s do lunch” dilemma? Dealing with other power issues? Ask a question.

Meryl K. Evans is senior editor at InternetVIZ and the content maven behind the Connected Digest, B2B Social Media Digest and Professional Services Journal. Follow her on Twitter @merylkevans.

Off to the Races

A bad economy isn’t an excuse for dropping your rates or avoiding a rate increase. Frank Cespedes, a Harvard Business School senior lecturer, has researched the topic of prices in tougher economic times, which he refers to as “performance pricing.” He says, “Pricing builds or destroys value faster than almost any business action, especially in tough and uncertain economic conditions when price is a key and visible strategic choice.”

What do you think of “performance pricing”?

[  Read original article ]

Professional Services Business Applications

Survey reveals growing interest in business solutions
by Jeanne Urich and Dave Hofferberth of Service Performance Insight 

Business application adoption by all sizes and types of billable service organizations has steadily gained momentum since professional services (PS) industry-specific business applications came to market over a decade ago. While every billable service organization uses some type of system (albeit manual spreadsheets) to capture costs, bill for time and account for revenue, many do not take advantage of the available business solutions that could help them improve operational performance. 

In May 2010, 244 billable professional service organizations (PSOs) representing a variety of PS disciplines and organization sizes responded to SPI Research’s business application survey. Respondents include PS business executives and CEOs of independent firms. 

The report provides PS executives and software application providers insight into the level of market adoption, integration and satisfaction with core PS business applications. The report also examines which PS industry sectors and applications are moving to the cloud and how soon.

Market adoption is improving

SPI Research found varied levels of application adoption, with ERP or “Financials” most prevalent, CRM second and remote service delivery third. Reported market adoption of PSA, HCM and BI was lower than anticipated. 

Professional service software providers break down their applications into a variety of core product modules that emphasize the management of costs, clients and resources. The three most commonly used applications include: 

∆        Financial management (ERP) is the primary application required to accurately collect, bill and report financial transactions. Traditional ERP providers dominate the PS financial application segment. Intuit’s QuickBooks is the overall leading platform, particularly for PSOs with fewer than 100 employees. Microsoft, Sage, Deltek and NetSuite are the primary ERP providers for mid-size organizations, and Oracle and SAP are the dominant ERP suppliers for large organizations. 

Although Oracle and SAP supply core financial functionality, their PS clients are increasingly using dedicated cloud-based CRM and PSA applications. These traditional vendors should take note of the erosion of their service industry client base toward easier-to-use, cheaper-to-deploy, PS-specific business applications. As the PS business gains stature and prominence within traditional technology manufacturing companies, PS executives are likely to defect toward more PS-specific, cloud-based applications.

∆        Client relationship management (CRM) supports the management of client relationships and is designed to improve sales and marketing effectiveness. In terms of PS adoption, surprisingly, commercial CRM adoption at 86 percent is rapidly closing in on ERP adoption (94 percent). This surge in service industry CRM adoption underscores the increased emphasis service organizations are placing on service selling and marketing. 

Approximately 14 percent of respondents reported the use of “none or homegrown,” and 22 percent use “other” CRM applications, which means 64 percent use a CRM solution from an industry-recognized software provider. Salesforce.com is the most dominant application provider in the study with 34 percent market share. No other vendor in any category comes close to this commanding market share. 

∆        Professional service automation (PSA) solutions provide the systems basis for initiation, planning, execution, close and control of projects and resource management. Unexpectedly, 44 percent of respondents reported using “none or homegrown” as their PSA solution; an additional 21 percent reported “other” while only 35 percent use a solution from an industry-recognized software provider. This lack of PSA penetration represents significant market opportunity for both ERP and PSA-specific providers.

NetSuite, having acquired OpenAir and QuickArrow, is the PSA market-share leader with over 16 percent of the market. 

Other applications gaining momentum in the PS sector are outlined below. While not as commonly used as the three mentioned previously, more sophisticated PS operations are starting to deploy HCM, BI and remote service delivery tools. 

∆        Remote service delivery and collaboration tools allow staff to conduct web-based meetings and collaborate from anywhere. According to the survey, 81 percent of respondents use remote service delivery and web-based conferencing solutions, which demonstrates a high rate of user adoption. The survey indicates the use of these tools has rapidly become the “ante to play” for service providers, and the tools will soon be as ubiquitous and necessary as office and email productivity tools. Webex and Citrix are the market-share leaders in remote service delivery and collaboration tools. 

∆        Human capital management (HCM) covers payroll, time and labor tracking, tax and benefits. Most ERP applications provide some level of human resource management, but a new breed of human capital management applications are coming to the fore to offer recruiting, skill tracking and training, performance, career and compensation management from recruitment through termination. 

Only 30 percent of respondents use dedicated HCM solutions from either their ERP provider or from specialized HCM providers, which signifies extremely low HCM service sector penetration. ADP, a traditional payroll outsourcer, garnered top market-share honors in the HCM category. SPI Research predicts HCM adoption will rapidly improve as new cloud-based tools become an essential ingredient for turbo-charging the people-based service business. 

∆        Business intelligence (BI) is the integration, management, use, analysis and reporting of business information to improve decision-making. BI service industry penetration has continued to grow and now stands at 43 percent. Primary providers are the market-share leader SAP, having acquired Business Objects, closely followed by IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Informatica. 

PS industry moves to cloud solutions

One of the most interesting trends is the service sector movement toward cloud-based solutions. Both large and small organizations demonstrate a strong preference for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions with 46 percent of the organizations expressing a preference for SaaS, as compared to 25 percent that prefer on-premise applications. 

For firms planning to move their applications to the cloud, most plan to do so within three years, which means the SaaS sector will continue its double-digit revenue and market-share growth. 

SaaS considerations

The roots of SaaS actually go back to timesharing in the 1980s. When re-envisioned a decade ago as a means of providing “browser-based” or “thin-client” application access, it would have been hard to predict the sweeping changes cloud-based computing would make on both the software industry and application users. 

This study shows the service industry overwhelmingly endorses SaaS, and many firms are transitioning to it. Cloud-adoption has been greatest for PSA, closely followed by CRM, HCM and BI. ERP is the only application segment where the majority of organizations have and plan to maintain an on-premise solution.

The promise of SaaS

So what’s behind the service industry stampede to cloud-based applications? Several factors make SaaS a perfect fit for the service industry, but one the most important considerations is that service providers are increasingly operating virtual organizations. 

The days of hiring by geography and dispatching hordes of consultants to work for months or years on a client site are gone. Project team size and duration continue to decline, engagements are becoming smaller and more iterative, making flexible staffing and virtual deployment a necessity. 

A growing phenomenon has been less work performed on the client site, not only to minimize travel and facility costs, but also because virtual projects are proving to be more successful and take advantage of the best available resources, regardless of location. Cloud computing is clearly the best solution for virtual organizations and reflects and supports their Internet-intensive work-style. 

The second important consideration is that most service organizations do not have numerous or, in many cases any, IT staff. This makes the prospect of running a large on-premise datacenter with a robust IT staff and support for loads of customizations an investment many service executives abhor. In most service executive’s minds, headcount represents revenue, not a cost, so the idea of turning responsibility for application development and maintenance over to a cloud-based vendor makes a lot of sense. 

Cloud computing offers the big advantage of requiring limited to no IT staff, and installations typically take weeks instead of the months or years required by on-premise solutions. Cloud computing allows service executives to do what they do best — solve complex business problems for clients, without having to worry about a lot of IT staff. 

Another straw tipping the balance toward SaaS is the applications themselves. The leading service industry SaaS providers have done a superb job of focusing on the business processes essential to the service industry. As SaaS applications have matured, the vendors have focused great attention on ease-of-use, powerful business process workflow tools and the ability to easily modify screens, forms and reports to reflect unique business requirements. 

All of this adds up to service-specific applications, which reflect and represent best practices. Since services are people-based businesses, service executives are more than willing to change business processes if they see a better way to run the business. Most service-specific cloud solutions offer excellent out-of-the-box support for core business processes like quote-to-cash, prospect-to-project, time and expense capture, and billing and project accounting. 

Lastly, beyond all the hype, the economics of SaaS are compelling. SaaS applications outshine on-premise applications in terms of upfront cost, deployment time and total cost of ownership. 

Just like outsourcing, the allure of lower cost was the initial reason organizations started to shift to SaaS, but the reason they stay with SaaS is because it gives them greater control over their business with less hassle at a predictable cost. SaaS may not be right for the largest and most complex service organizations but it is a solution worth considering for the majority of PSOs. 

The allure of business solutions 

The PS sector has developed quite an appetite for business solutions in the past decade. From the smallest PSOs to the largest, the sector continues to increase its use of information as a competitive, productivity tool to increase performance. 

The market is changing, with new solution providers and different deployment options available, making it much easier and more cost-effective to implement business applications. 

To learn more, the complete 46-page report, which contains 60 insightful charts and tables, is now available for $295. Click here to see the table of contents and purchase the report.

Jeanne Urich, Service Performance Insight managing director, is a management consultant specializing in improvement and transformation for project and service-oriented organizations. She has been a corporate officer and leader of the worldwide service organizations of Vignette, Blue Martini and Clarify, responsible for leading the growth of their professional services, education, account management and alliances organizations. She is co-author of the PS Maturity Model 2010 Benchmark report. Contact Urich at jeanne.urich@spiresearch.com or (650) 342-4690.

Dave Hofferberth, Service Performance Insight managing director, has more than 25 years of experience in information technology, serving as an industry analyst, market consultant and product director. Hofferberth focuses on the services economy, especially on white-collar productivity issues and technologies that help people perform at their highest capacity. Hofferberth’s background includes the management of application development teams and analytical tool development to support business decision-making processes. He is also a licensed professional engineer. Contact Hofferberth at david.hofferberth@spiresearch.com or (513) 759-5443.

Terrible Professional Services Marketing Strategy

Discover the first three keys to failing
by Mike Schultz, Publisher, RainToday.com

There must be a secret primer out there on how to build terrible marketing strategies for professional services firms. Over the past two decades I’ve come across so many marketing strategies that have failed for similar reasons that I figure everyone must be in the know and I have simply been left out of the loop.

After much research to find the source, the secret codex still eludes me. So, I am compelled to seize this moment for posterity and codify the process of building terrible marketing strategies. Here goes:

1. Build the Strategy from the Top Down

Q. In a ham and eggs breakfast, what’s the difference between the pig and the chicken?

A. The chicken was compliant, but the pig was committed.

Nothing turns off partners, division leaders, and other leadership types more than being handed a strategy and told to “make it happen.” Force feed the strategies from on high and you’re likely to get compliance and not commitment. Practice leaders may take the strategy and run with it, perhaps even put a bit of effort and sweat into it, yet they can and frequently do walk away at the first sign of trouble.

Without going through the process of crafting the strategies and tactics–brainstorming possibilities, performing “what if” analyses, researching best practices, and backtracking when suggested actions don’t seem like they’ll pan out–the team’s dedication to implementation will be weak.

Once the tactics feel burdensome to implement, or at the first sign senior management isn’t going to hold the team’s feet to the fire, implementation grinds to a standstill. Nothing makes a terrible strategy more terrible than one doomed to be ignored or, at best, tolerated by the team members responsible for making it a success.

2. Don’t Consult with Expert Tacticians

Equally as devastating as a top-down strategy is a strategy built without input from experts familiar with the underlying marketing and business development tactics. When you identify your specific tactics–even if the tactics are largely decent choices for a successful marketing strategy–without talking with people who have deep, relevant experience, the actual outcome will likely differ from the one you envision.

For example, you might conduct a seminar or webinar and want to fill the room with decision makers, but unfortunately you generate little or no attendance. Or, you manage to generate some attendance, but then you do a poor job of delivering content that will help you connect with potential clients. (Try a hard-sell approach; most decision makers really despise that.) Then you can ruin your follow-up by not doing it, doing it too late, or doing it poorly.

Maybe you set out to support lead generation and client communication with a website, but end up with a website that no one can find, no one can use, is hard on the eyes, provides no value, is not client focused, and generally reflects poorly on your company. You might then employ direct mail for lead generation and generate no response–with no idea why and no way to find out what didn’t work!

Leave out the tactical expertise and the terrible marketing outcomes you can achieve are endless.

3. Look Only at Your Own Industry and Competition

If you want your marketing strategy to never reach beyond average, make sure you look only at your industry and competition.

Let’s say your company is an accounting firm. Make sure you look only at what other accounting firms are doing for growth. Ignore law, management consulting, technology, and consumer products companies. This is a great way to miss out on all the newest marketing trends, technologies, and possibilities. Plus, if you look only at your own industry for inspiration, you’ll never be a leader. Being late to the game is a great component to a terrible marketing strategy.

Make sure that when you study the competition to see what they’re doing, you look only at your direct competitors. Following the accounting example, let’s say you’re in a 50-person accounting firm outside of New York City. Focus only on other mid-size accounting firms. Don’t even think about considering what KPMG or PWC are doing, and don’t worry much about what the 200-person firm might be up to. They’re too big for you to care about, and you don’t want to get too many inspirations from companies that have grown well or are larger than you.

The Channel Challenge

Part 1: Obstacles to services partnerships
by James A. Alexander, Ed.D. 

Organizations serious about selling services often must look to channel partners to help them reach their services objectives. However, under what circumstances is it a good idea to use channel partners to deliver services? How about selling services? How do you decide which types of services they should sell and/or deliver? 

And when it comes right down to it: Who are your channel partners? 

Depending on your situation and your industry’s nomenclature, your potential services channel partners might be called distributors, wholesalers, dealers, value-added resellers, manufacturer representatives, system integrators, consulting firms, independent services organizations, independent services providers, or in some cases, direct competitors. These channel partners may range from one-person shops to multinational corporations. Furthermore, in some situations, it makes sense to consider your customers as potential services channel partners if they have the capability and the desire to self-service your offerings themselves. 

So as you build and broaden your services capabilities, what is the best way to deal with existing channel partners whose primary focus has been product sales? How do you minimize competition with existing channel partners who already offer the services you are building and planning to deploy? What are the criteria for selecting partners in situations where it makes no sense for you to go direct? Read on to find out more. 

Traditional use of channel partners 

It is important to remember that in the majority of situations, companies first looked to channel partners to help them sell more products. Properly selected and managed, motivated channel partners helped companies sell more products cheaper and easier than they could do on their own. 

In a traditional partnership, your company’s emphasis is on getting your channel partners capable of selling your products the way you want them sold and keeping them motivated to sell your offerings, and not your competitors’ offerings. 

The concerns with services channel partners 

Services channel partners are different than traditional channel partners. That’s why services executives often identify “effectively finding and managing services channel partners” as one of the more difficult aspects of running the services business. Research (see Figure 1) confirms this, revealing that services operations’ biggest critical issue is dealing with channel challenges. This probably doesn’t surprise many of you. 

Research respondents specifically cited such concerns as two-tier distribution channel conflict, balancing disparate goals between partners and the services organization and sales channels that do not know how to or do not want to sell services. 

Challenges of finding and keeping strong services channel partners 

In considering the right services channel partners for your needs, you must address several issues. 

1. Complexity 

In some situations, your organization is responsible for selling services, and all you need is a competent, reliable service provider in a specific geography or industry. In other situations, you may look for someone to sell your services while you deliver them. 

In still other situations, you may want your services channel partner to both sell and deliver your services. Or you may want your channel partners to sell and/or deliver certain services but not others. You may also prefer that the mix of services (start-up, uptime or professional services) vary by geography, market, industry or type of customer. 

And, of course, your potential services channel partners will vary in their existing services capabilities, their desire to deliver services and their motivation to sell services, depending on their history, business strategy, goals and opportunities. Furthermore, just like your organization, their capabilities, strategy and motivation will also vary by industry and location.

 You must consider dozens of variables as you decide how to sell and deliver services in different scenarios. 

2. Reputation at risk 

In situations where you have a third party delivering your services, no matter what the name on the services provider’s shirt, your customers think of it as an extension of your organization. Hence, customers relate a good service experience with your services channel partner to your organization, but they also hold your organization responsible if they are dissatisfied with the channel partner’s performance. 

A few bad experiences from a few channel partners can have a major impact on the reputation of your services organization, and can negatively impact your company’s overall brand. 

Like it or not, your image is directly tied to the performance of your channel partners. 

3. Maintaining quality control 

Getting people to do what you want, how you want and when you want is never simple, but it is much easier when they work directly for you. Getting people from another organization to consistently deliver services up to your standards is tough. This becomes a bigger issue when you are trying to deliver a global service quality standard around the world using multiple channel partners. 

For example, it may be next to impossible to find services channel partners in certain remote locations such as Sahara Africa, let alone assure the quality services performance of their actions. Moreover, difficult terrain, extreme weather and the customs and laws of some third-world countries add to unpredictability, high costs and an increased probability of not achieving planned performance standards. 

Maintaining consistent quality around the globe is the Achilles’ heel of the services executive. 

4. Creating competitors 

When you introduce another organization to your business model, educate staff on your products and train them to effectively and efficiently sell and deliver your services offerings, you run the risk of creating a future competitor. 

Things change. Plan for the best, but prepare for the worst. 

Sometimes you may not know who the customers are. If your organization has relied on distribution to sell products in the past, you may not know who your end users are. The emphasis may be on getting resellers to first buy, and then sell, your products, and not much else matters. 

In this scenario, the only service concerns your organization would have are keeping warranty costs to a minimum and making sure the resellers meet minimum levels of customer satisfaction. Hence, your organization may not see the need to develop a database of product end users. 

Without an accurate database of your installed base, effectively selling and delivering services is almost impossible. 

5. Resistance from existing partners 

Ponder Point: When you change the rules, expect lots of protest. 

In finding services channel partners, you may first want to consider your existing channel partners as candidates because you already have a relationship with them, and your existing agreements may require involving them. In addition, you may get pressure from the sales organization to give this group the right of first refusal, as they want to do nothing that jeopardizes product sales. 

Yet, remember that the focus of the majority of your existing channel partners was and is to sell products, period. The primary components of your agreements with them are all about product sales volume. This is what your organization has wanted and focused on, possibly for decades. 

Most of these partners have a product-centered culture (like your organization once had or currently has) and don’t want to deal with services. They see it as a distraction and a detriment to running their business. Hence, they will resist your overtures or requests or demands that they now build services capabilities and/or selling services competencies. 

On the other extreme, though, within your existing channel partners, you probably have a small number that already recognize the value of services and currently sell and provide the services you are trying to expand into. 

In fact, in the past, your organization may have encouraged these channel partners to aggressively build and sell services independently, as your company had no interest in services. Therefore, these select few of your existing channel partners will now see you as trying to compete with them for “their customers.” Of course, they will resist your advances, as they perceive that you are changing the rules and trying to move into their turf. 

Here is an example: Back in the “good old days,” a client sold, through resellers, a highly profitable proprietary product to the tune of roughly $300,000 per box. A few start-up services were “thrown in” to secure the sale and make sure the box performed as required. 

Since the product addressed mission-critical functions, the client easily sold and delivered uptime services, again at envious profit margins. If the customer had any other needs “beyond the box,” the reseller took care of them by providing professional services. Never mind that these “additional needs” often amounted to seven figures. Roles were clean and straightforward. Profitable growth was relatively easy and predictable. Life was good. 

Over just a few years, however, the former $300,000 proprietary product evolved into a $30,000 open-systems box, competing against a plethora of cheaper choices. The once-easy uptime services sale became not so easy, since products were more reliable, and similar, “just-as-good” uptime services were offered at lower prices, putting pressure on profit margins. 

So the client decided that its only hope of growing the business at acceptable levels of profitability, aside from acquiring or being acquired or dramatically altering the business focus, lies in expanding into professional services. It appeared to be a challenging, but doable, task. 

But wait … professional services businesses are built on strong client trust, and trust centers on relationships. In this case, the reseller still owned the client relationship. To advance the professional services initiative, the client invested the time to create new customer relationships, aggressively compete for account control and manage conflict on several fronts, as former “partners” now viewed the client not only as a competitor, but as a two-faced, turncoat, back-stabbing competitor. This was a very difficult situation that never reached the hoped-for goal. 

On the one hand, the majority of your existing partners flat out don’t want to sell services or provide services. On the other hand, you have a few existing partners (usually some of your best) that now see you as wanting to compete with them. Of course they will feel both protective and possibly frightened at your new services strategy. Getting their cooperation is a tough challenge. 

As you’ve seen, there are lots of obstacles to getting services channel relationships done right. However, knowing where the potholes are makes finding the path a lot easier. 

The next article in this four-part series, The Channel Challenge — Part 2: Using Services to Build Distinct Competencies, will add further guidance to this complex issue. 

This article is adapted from Seriously Selling Services, the new book by James “Alex” Alexander. Visit our blog at http://www.seriouslysellingservices.com/. 

About Jim Alexander

Jim Alexander is founder of Alexander Consulting, a management consultancy that creates and implements professional services strategies for product companies. Contact him at 239-671-0740, alex@alexanderstrategists.com, or visit http://www.alexanderstrategists.com/.

Would You Like Some Whine?

I have a coworker who complains to me about everything that happens to her at work. While I’m a good listener, her constant interruptions affect my work. I don’t think going to our manager is the right thing to do. And I’m hesitant to strain our relationship since we’re on the same team. What should I do? Should I tell her she’s complaining too much, ask her to stop because her interruptions disrupt my work or be supportive and let her vent?

— Michelle

Stop Fighting and Start Working

My experience with collaboration has shown that it can turn a good work product into a great one. Bringing together multiple experiences and skills helps the team uncover something what one person alone could not. But personalities clash. Two people can be great workers yet can’t get along. This feature has great tips for managers on how and when to intervene, principles to remember and case studies.

How did you handle a conflict? What was the result?

[ Read original article ]

I’m Getting Ulcers!

Murphy’s Law is in full force along with the summer heat. Somehow, many employees on my team tend to request vacation on the same weeks. Last year, I struggled to decide who gets first dibs on popular vacation dates. The aftermath was nasty, and I don’t want to go through that again.

Yes, I want to my team to take its well-deserved time off. But how can I be fair without leaving the business shorthanded? Should I go by seniority, hold a drawing or what?

— Judy, Manager

Human resources departments in many companies tend to have policies to help managers deal with vacation requests. But not all companies, especially small businesses, have the luxury of a vacation process in place. Without rules, the managers rely on an ad hoc process, which often leads to problems.

It sounds like this company needs to develop guidelines. Not to worry, you don’t have to figure it out alone. Readers and experts give tips for creating a fair process for granting vacation:

• Assign on a first-come basis.
• Provide a deadline.
• Create an effective seniority program.
• Involve employees.

Oh, and make sure you take a day or two off to reward yourself for a job well done and chasing away the ulcers.

Got another great tip for dealing with vacation requests? Join the conversation by leaving a comment. Or ask your own question.

Assign on a first-come basis

The most popular advice from readers is to approve vacation assignments on a first-come, first-served basis. This rule is tough to beat, but companies may have rules that won’t work with that approach such as seniority. Add to that, companies with employees in unions have to comply with the union’s rules.

If assigning vacation days as you get requests doesn’t work for you, readers offer other options.

Provide a deadline

Rather than just letting employees submit vacation requests whenever, give them a deadline to encourage them to plan. “I found that by designing a vacation plan up front, I have avoided the ‘vacation jam.’ Simply, I clarified several times of the year where there is black-out scheduling, meaning no vacation time granted. Of course, you have to account for emergencies, but overall, this immediately ensures that you have the appropriate coverage for the busiest times,” says Rachel Aidan, Aidan James Salon.

Create an effective seniority program

Companies using the seniority approach see this as an opportunity to reward long-time employees without any extra costs except the price of frustrating less senior employees. The problem with seniority is that employees with shorter service time have to wait on everyone ahead of them to schedule vacations before they can act.

David Weichenthal, CEO, Schedule Tech, proposes a modified seniority scheme. “The advantage is that you can shorten the vacation scheduling process from months to a day or less. Every employee submits up to three choices for the first week of vacation, second week of vacation and the remaining weeks by a certain date.”

If conflicts arise, Bettina Seidman, president of SEIDBET Associates, recommends speaking to the people involved and finding out how critical the requested dates are.

Weichenthal adds, “A manager goes through the requests and creates a schedule. If a manager can’t accommodate an employee’s three choices for a week, the manager moves on to the employee’s next three requests or on to the next employee. After scheduling vacation for all employees, those employees who struck out submit a second set of requests.”

Involve employees

“Remember corporate America is not a democracy, but a business that must be operational,” says Patty Sharkey, vice president of human resources for Greenlaw Partners. “Work with your employees. Determine applicable boundaries, i.e., two staff members must work. Explain the rationale behind the business requirements. Then bring the vacation policy to your team to work out the basics.” Sharkey has had good experience with this approach, and employees value having a voice.

Managers can further empower employees by letting them brainstorm rules. “Generate an abundance of schemes for allotting vacation time. Get creative. The more schemes the better. Take time out so that your team can go find out how other companies do this,” says Ann Latham, president and founder of Uncommon Clarity, Inc. “Evaluate each scheme against the factors and agree on the best fit. Promise to collect feedback and new ideas to tweak the method for the future.”

Aidan has another idea: “I also direct staff to work together to find coverage for projects or coverage. This way by the time there is a request, we usually have adequate coverage in place.”

Latham continues, “There is no perfect process, but if your team believes the process is fair, they are much more likely to put up with any shortcomings.” says Latham.

Joann Perahia, vice president of Systemic Solutions Inc., gives us some advice to remember. “The last words of wisdom are, ‘TOUGH, we all can’t get what we want at the same time.’ Put rules in place to lessen the whining and disgruntled employees. In this day and age, they should be happy they have a job.”

Doesn’t reading this make you want to take a vacation? How does your team handle the vacation dilemma? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or ask your most pressing question.