10:10 - some ideas are so simple!

Centurion has just signed up to 10:10 (http://www.1010global.org/uk) and made a commitment to reduce our energy usage by 10% over the coming year. Our recent office move has given us a head start as we are now in a much more energy efficient building so we are looking at fine tuning.

We have always looked to minimise our impact and 10:10 will provide us with a great focal point. One area to get attention is our business mileage and as a starting point we needed to know the mileage for last year. This proved to be harder to do that I expected so we are about to improve our expense management system. Managing expenses online, using breatheHR, will give us the tools to monitor mileage and reduce admin.

As a business we are driven to create strong client relationships so it is important for us to meet with clients. However, we plan to use our IT systems to help reduce the need to travel. We have provided online support for a number of years are are adding online 1-1 bite sized training and even online installation services.

Where is all our data held?

Most companies have all the data they need to make informed decisions - it's just not in a format that can be accessed or used.

I had a great conversation a while back with a friend & business colleague about email - is it data or is it a bucket that has data in it? This may seem like a technicality but in my view it is essential to realise that it is a bucket!

How many emails do we all get in a day - 50, 100, more? Many are junk but some contain nuggets of data that are valuable. We need this data to make informed decisions. Most people store useful / important email in some sort of file structure - typically in Outlook folders. On the face of it this is great, but it falls apart when we want to access the data contained within the email. We can search by sender, subject or content - if we know where to look (maybe it is in folders that I don't have access to) and can guess at some of the words used. I would claim that unless you are really organised, or have time on your hands, much of the useful data contained in filed email is lost.

Document management systems have long been heralded as the key to a paperless office but they are expensive, difficult to set up and maintain. They can however provide a solution to the issue of managing data in emails (much more than managing a filing system for email).

We have been looking at ways to open up the document management tools to SMEs that don't have a huge budget and are really excited to have found KnowledgeTree.

KnowledgeTree provide affordable, easy to use systems to manage documents, promote collaboration, reduce paper and most importantly release data held in documents. We are just finalising our plans and will have more information about KnowledgeTree available shortly.

With information comes light.

I heard a senior executive from Facebook say this recently and it has stuck with me. Taking this saying and stretching it to its limits was an interesting exercise (sad I know, but my excuse is that I was stuck on a packed commuter train heading home from London).

If information brings light
then
knowledge must be an open door with the light shining through and the conviction to walk towards it
leading to
understanding as one recognises the source of the light.

To run a business we must have information but, to take informed decisions, we need to turn it into knowledge and act on that knowledge. Only after acting do we stand a chance of understanding.

Decision Making

How many decisions do we take in our business life? Many are taken without thought, as part of our daily workload. Some demand more attention and have a greater impact. There are only two outcomes to the decision making process - 'do something' or 'do nothing'. When I say 'do nothing' I include 'get more research', procrastinate and all the other things that result in no action being taken.

How any businesses consistently monitor the results of 'do something' decisions? The best businesses always measure outcomes and adjust decisions accordingly.

When it comes to 'do nothing' decisions, very few businesses consider the outcome. However, how can we as business people improve our decision making process if we don't do this? If we decide to not invest in a new server, we should measure what that decision is costing us (or not costing us). If a decision is taken to not invest in an ageing product then we must recognise that a drop in sales is possibly the reaction to that decision.

For the last couple of years it's been easy to take 'do nothing' decisions but if we were wrong then the consequences will show up sooner or later. Isn't it better to monitor the results of all high impact decisions (both 'do something' and 'do nothing') so that we can adjust our actions quickly?

I like the idea that there are no wrong decisions, only right decisions that are not reversed quick enough.

Apples & pears

There has been a long running discussion on LinkedIn about the merits of two CRM systems. It all started with a very fair question asking for a comparison between Microsoft CRM and Sage ACT! However, from many points of view they are incomparable - particularly in functionality, complexity, cost & technology used. The debate has rolled on for a couple of weeks with answers getting technical, heated and to be honest occasionally irrelevant. There have been several people arguing that they need to consider their requirements first. I wonder if the questioner regrets asking!

When an organisation is in the early stages of looking for a system there needs to be two parallel strands

1. basic product research; and
2. requirements definition

Basic product research must happen to allow the organisation to become familiar with the market place to answer questions like

• who are the providers
• what can the systems do
• basic costs.

After all there is no point in doing any more research if what you want can not be done. Also, when meetings are arranged with potential suppliers the organisation will be speaking from a position of knowledge.

Requirements definition is needed to properly understand what the organisation needs. There should be a 'must have' list and a 'wish' list of requirements but it is important to make sure that the wish list doesn't take precedence.

The next stage is how to choose the potential providers....

Multi-tasking is bad for you - apparently.

Stanford University researchers have found that compulsive mulit-taskers are harming their ability to focus on the task at hand. They were tested to see if they could ignore irrelevant information when given a task and apparently they couldn't.

I know I have good multi tasking days when I get so much done and bad days when I just get distracted, flitting from one thing to another. The bad days are usually a symptom of a lack of pre planning or focus for the day. It's not that I have lost focus by multi-tasking, it was never there in the first place!

Experience has taught me that I work best when I'm on the edge - preparing for things 'just in time' - but this only works if I get the basics right. I use our CRM system to hold as much info as possible about what I am doing. For example, if I arrange a meeting for a future date I need to clearly record what it's about and what my goals are, because I know that I will grab the info just before I set off to the meeting. This may sound like I am not preparing but actually I prepare long in advance. If I have all the facts in one place then I can use travel time really well - I get so much done on trains.

A top tip to reduce distractions - stop Outlook telling you that a new email has arrived. Check your mail every hour instead. A study by Microsoft found that it takes 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption by email. Another survey claims only 8 minutes but that's still a huge amount of time.

Snow stop play (2)

Back in February I wrote a post suggesting that work needn't stop because of a little bit of snow. Well here we are again - the broadcasters are advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary. But what is 'absolutely necessary'? If you run your own business and have to make every moment count, then surely travel is absolutely necessary. One of my guys was due to see a client this morning and spent 1 1/2 hours trying to get there before turning around. A fantastic effort that meant a lot to me and the client. However, everybody needs to make individual decision based on their own circumstances.

What ever the weather, a good plan and capable systems really can help. We are by no means the best prepared but work goes on at Centurion. The office is not maned, but our phones are redirected so the few clients that are working can still be supported. We are working from home with access to email and CRM. Online training has happened this morning and client work continues all be it at a slightly slower pace. I can even go into our HR system, breatheHR, and prepare for next weeks performance reviews.

This sort of event is going to get more frequent so we, as responsible managers, need to constantly improve our processes. There are things that I have learnt over the last two days that I want to change for next time. We need to share the information about how to redirect the phones for instance.

Life goes on - and it does look very pretty outside!