Posted by Mark Brousseau
Pre-paid cards are primed for explosive growth in the coming year, according to a survey conducted by Firstsource Solutions.
Fifty percent of payment industry professionals surveyed expect wider adoption of pre-paid cards as more consumers move away from credit cards and cash. Nearly 30 percent of respondents said that more consumers would become “loaders” (i.e. depositing more money to their pre-paid accounts).
“We’re seeing a growing interest in pre-paid cards in consumer segments that weren’t originally drawn to using such a form of payment,” says Tim Smith, senior vice president, Banking Financial Services & Insurance, Firstsource. “Our findings support recent research about the upward trend in the pre-paid market which shows that an estimated $37 billion was loaded onto prepaid cards last year, compared to $18 billion in 2009 and $9 billion in 2008.”
Survey respondents indicated that there is a huge opportunity for the pre-paid market to expand its customer base beyond the most likely consumer targets. More than 40 percent indicated that increased scrutiny from regulators regarding loading and set-up fees will pose the greatest risk to the industry. Additionally, 47 percent said educating card holders on the nuances of a pre-paid will be critical to successful adoption and overall growth in the market.
Firstsource’s survey also examined sentiment on the current regulatory climate in the payments industry. While Dodd-Frank was top-of-mind for 45 percent of payments professionals, the Consumer Financial Protection Act has fallen off the radar for most industry executives (only 9 percent of respondents indicated it was currently a priority issue).
What do you think?
Showing posts with label payments processing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label payments processing. Show all posts
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
NACHA's Wheels
By Mark Brousseau
NACHA's Pay It Green sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its Payments 2011 conference last week in Austin, Texas.
NACHA's Pay It Green sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its Payments 2011 conference last week in Austin, Texas.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
2011 Predictions for Payments Security
Posted by Mark Brousseau
As 2010 came to an end, it was no surprise that payments security was a top priority for financial institutions, credit card companies, merchants and consumers.
Progress in stopping attacks was achieved last year, resulting in many high-profile arrests. More than 50 individuals involved in the highly publicized Zeus gang were apprehended, and developers of the Mariposa botnet, which stole information from approximately 12.7 million users around the world, were arrested. Most recently, five arrests were made this year for taking part in a series of denial-of-service attacks against major websites as part of the group "Anonymous."
Despite these efforts, cyber fraud is far from being eliminated. In fact, it is evolving into groups (WikiLeaks), resulting in even more malicious and dangerous attacks on consumers and organizations in 2011.
Daniel McCann, president of NetSecure Technologies, a provider of online transaction security solutions, sees the following payments security trends and issues in 2011:
... The emergence of hacker groups
... An increase in mobile fraud as mobile commerce increases
... More attacks on Apple’s i-products as they continue to dominate the industry
... A significant increase in security spending, especially in new technologies like virtualization
What do you think?
As 2010 came to an end, it was no surprise that payments security was a top priority for financial institutions, credit card companies, merchants and consumers.
Progress in stopping attacks was achieved last year, resulting in many high-profile arrests. More than 50 individuals involved in the highly publicized Zeus gang were apprehended, and developers of the Mariposa botnet, which stole information from approximately 12.7 million users around the world, were arrested. Most recently, five arrests were made this year for taking part in a series of denial-of-service attacks against major websites as part of the group "Anonymous."
Despite these efforts, cyber fraud is far from being eliminated. In fact, it is evolving into groups (WikiLeaks), resulting in even more malicious and dangerous attacks on consumers and organizations in 2011.
Daniel McCann, president of NetSecure Technologies, a provider of online transaction security solutions, sees the following payments security trends and issues in 2011:
... The emergence of hacker groups
... An increase in mobile fraud as mobile commerce increases
... More attacks on Apple’s i-products as they continue to dominate the industry
... A significant increase in security spending, especially in new technologies like virtualization
What do you think?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Are you Fred?
By Wes Friesen, Portland General Electric
“There is only one boss – the customer. If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.”
Fred Shea was a postal carrier who really took to heart and embodied the following quote from Martin Luther King: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper (or work in A/P or A/R!), he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great sweeper who did his job well.’”
Fred provided exceptional service to all his customers, and constantly went the extra mile – he would even drive through the neighborhood to check on people on his days off! One of Fred’s very satisfied customers was motivational speaker and author Mark Sanborn, who wrote a book about exceptional customer service called “The Fred Factor.” I highly recommend getting the book and the video training series and going through it with your team.
Here are four cardinal principles about being a “Fred:”
1) Principle #1: Everyone Makes a Difference - every individual can choose to do his or her job in an extraordinary way, regardless of the circumstances.
2) Principle #2: Success is Built on Relationships - the quality of the relationship determines the quality of the product or service.
3) Principle #3: You Must Continually Create Value for Others, and It Doesn’t Have to Cost a Penny - you can creatively find no-cost ways to exceed expectations of your customers.
4) Principle #4: You Can Reinvent Yourself Regularly - every morning you wake up with a clean slate. We can choose to follow the advice of John Wooden’s father Joshua who taught “make each day your masterpiece.”
One tool to measure how well your team provides customer service, is to conduct a periodic customer survey. By analyzing the results of the survey you can reinforce what is going well, and identify areas that can be improved. Because people are busy these days, I prefer to keep the survey simple and short. Here is a sample survey that you can use as a starting place:
CUSTOMER SURVEY
Timeliness:
Are your jobs completed in a timely manner?
Below Expectations ____
Meets Expectations ____
Exceeds Expectations ____
Quality:
How is the overall quality of the work that our team provides for you? (same scale)
Responsiveness:
Is the staff responsive to your special requests? (same scale)
Helpfulness:
Do you find that our staff are helpful and offer solutions to your needs? (same scale)
Overall Performance: (same scale)
Are there services that you would like to see that are not currently provided?
What do you feel are some areas of strength in how we serve you?
What ideas do you have on how we can serve you better in the future?
Unfortunately Fred-like service is not common – as Roger Staubach says “there are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” Being a Fred is a choice – how will you and your team choose?
Let me close with a final quote to think about that comes from Andrew Carnegie: “There are two types of people who never achieve very much in their lifetimes. One is the person who won’t do what he is told to do, and the other is the person who does no more than what he or she is told to do.” Good luck as you commit you and your team to go the extra mile and be “Fred’s!”
Wes can be contacted at Wes.Friesen@pgn.com.
“There is only one boss – the customer. If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.”
Fred Shea was a postal carrier who really took to heart and embodied the following quote from Martin Luther King: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper (or work in A/P or A/R!), he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great sweeper who did his job well.’”
Fred provided exceptional service to all his customers, and constantly went the extra mile – he would even drive through the neighborhood to check on people on his days off! One of Fred’s very satisfied customers was motivational speaker and author Mark Sanborn, who wrote a book about exceptional customer service called “The Fred Factor.” I highly recommend getting the book and the video training series and going through it with your team.
Here are four cardinal principles about being a “Fred:”
1) Principle #1: Everyone Makes a Difference - every individual can choose to do his or her job in an extraordinary way, regardless of the circumstances.
2) Principle #2: Success is Built on Relationships - the quality of the relationship determines the quality of the product or service.
3) Principle #3: You Must Continually Create Value for Others, and It Doesn’t Have to Cost a Penny - you can creatively find no-cost ways to exceed expectations of your customers.
4) Principle #4: You Can Reinvent Yourself Regularly - every morning you wake up with a clean slate. We can choose to follow the advice of John Wooden’s father Joshua who taught “make each day your masterpiece.”
One tool to measure how well your team provides customer service, is to conduct a periodic customer survey. By analyzing the results of the survey you can reinforce what is going well, and identify areas that can be improved. Because people are busy these days, I prefer to keep the survey simple and short. Here is a sample survey that you can use as a starting place:
CUSTOMER SURVEY
Timeliness:
Are your jobs completed in a timely manner?
Below Expectations ____
Meets Expectations ____
Exceeds Expectations ____
Quality:
How is the overall quality of the work that our team provides for you? (same scale)
Responsiveness:
Is the staff responsive to your special requests? (same scale)
Helpfulness:
Do you find that our staff are helpful and offer solutions to your needs? (same scale)
Overall Performance: (same scale)
Are there services that you would like to see that are not currently provided?
What do you feel are some areas of strength in how we serve you?
What ideas do you have on how we can serve you better in the future?
Unfortunately Fred-like service is not common – as Roger Staubach says “there are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” Being a Fred is a choice – how will you and your team choose?
Let me close with a final quote to think about that comes from Andrew Carnegie: “There are two types of people who never achieve very much in their lifetimes. One is the person who won’t do what he is told to do, and the other is the person who does no more than what he or she is told to do.” Good luck as you commit you and your team to go the extra mile and be “Fred’s!”
Wes can be contacted at Wes.Friesen@pgn.com.
Want to Improve Performance? Measure It!
By Wes Friesen, Portland General Electric
“Improving performance does not happen by accident. It is the result of a commitment to excellence, intentionality and focused effort.”
Peter Drucker was the considered the Father of professional management. He said “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” Being in a management role provides us the opportunity to intentionally raise the performance levels of our teams – and the individuals that comprise them.
To improve the performance of our teams, we need relevant performance measures to inspire, provide a common focus and allow us to track progress. Here are some tools to help develop powerful performance measures:
Ask the Right Performance Questions
The Right Questions express the critical few things by which to judge our performance results. Put yourselves in the shoes of your key stakeholders (investors, customers, employees) and ask what is important to them?
Organizational Development expert Brad Fishel points out that when you answer the Right Performance Questions realize that some measures you develop in response will be Quantitative (numeric) in nature (e.g. how many pieces of mail were produced last month), but some will be Qualitative (subjective) in nature (e.g. how satisfied are our customers). Don’t ignore qualitative measures – consider the usage of surveys and other rating instruments. Fishel also says “Better to have subjective judgments about important questions than objective data about unimportant questions”.
Develop “balanced” measures to judge success
Effective teams add value to all important stakeholders and avoid a singular focus (e.g. being low cost) to the detriment of other important outcomes (e.g. high quality). Following are potential types of measures to consider. For each measure that gets used, we should have a target/goal to compare actual results against:
1) Productivity (productivity is simply a measure of Goods/Services produced divided by Resources Used)
2) Quality (e.g. reliability, accuracy, mistake free, meets requirements, etc)
3) Volume (how much is being produced)
4) Timeliness (are work products completed when needed)
5) Service (are customers satisfied with the service they receive)
6) Compliance (are postal regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA, and other regulations being met)
7) Cost (e.g. measure overall costs and/or cost per unit)
Intentionally focus on improving performance
How can we strive to improve productivity and overall performance? Following are some tools to choose from:
1) Lay out a challenge (illustrated by the closing story)
2) Enhanced Training & Development
3) Provide recognition and use incentives
4) Pursue wise use of technology
5) Look for process improvements
6) Be a better servant leader and show more care for your employees
7) Solicit ideas from your team members
8) Learn from other successful teams
Let me close with the following story from the life of Charles Schwab, former head of U.S. Steel. Schwab said:
I had a mill manager who was finely educated, thoroughly capable and master of every detail of the business. But he seemed unable to inspire his men to do their best.
One day I asked him: “How is it that a man as able as you, cannot make this mil turn out what it should?” “I don’t know” he replied. “I have coaxed the men; I have pushed them; I have sworn at them. I have done everything in my power. Yet they will not produce.”
It was near the end of the day; in a few minutes the night force would come on duty. I turned to a workman who was standing beside one of the red-mouthed furnaces and asked him for a piece of chalk. “How many heats has your shift made today?” I queried. “Six” he replied. I chalked a big “6” on the floor, and then passed along without another word.
When the night shift came in they saw the “6” and asked about it. “The big boss was in here today”, said the day men. “He asked us how many heats we had made, and we told him six. He chalked it down.”
The next morning I passed through the same mill. I saw that the “6” had been rubbed out and a big “7” written instead. The night shift had announced itself. That night I went back. The “7” had been erased, and a “10” swaggered in its place. The day force recognized no superiors. Thus a fine competition was started, and it went on until this mill, formerly the poorest producer, was turning out more than any other mill in the company.
Good luck as you partner with your team and intentionally pursue a higher level of performance!
Wes can be contacted at Wes.Friesen@pgn.com.
“Improving performance does not happen by accident. It is the result of a commitment to excellence, intentionality and focused effort.”
Peter Drucker was the considered the Father of professional management. He said “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” Being in a management role provides us the opportunity to intentionally raise the performance levels of our teams – and the individuals that comprise them.
To improve the performance of our teams, we need relevant performance measures to inspire, provide a common focus and allow us to track progress. Here are some tools to help develop powerful performance measures:
Ask the Right Performance Questions
The Right Questions express the critical few things by which to judge our performance results. Put yourselves in the shoes of your key stakeholders (investors, customers, employees) and ask what is important to them?
Organizational Development expert Brad Fishel points out that when you answer the Right Performance Questions realize that some measures you develop in response will be Quantitative (numeric) in nature (e.g. how many pieces of mail were produced last month), but some will be Qualitative (subjective) in nature (e.g. how satisfied are our customers). Don’t ignore qualitative measures – consider the usage of surveys and other rating instruments. Fishel also says “Better to have subjective judgments about important questions than objective data about unimportant questions”.
Develop “balanced” measures to judge success
Effective teams add value to all important stakeholders and avoid a singular focus (e.g. being low cost) to the detriment of other important outcomes (e.g. high quality). Following are potential types of measures to consider. For each measure that gets used, we should have a target/goal to compare actual results against:
1) Productivity (productivity is simply a measure of Goods/Services produced divided by Resources Used)
2) Quality (e.g. reliability, accuracy, mistake free, meets requirements, etc)
3) Volume (how much is being produced)
4) Timeliness (are work products completed when needed)
5) Service (are customers satisfied with the service they receive)
6) Compliance (are postal regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA, and other regulations being met)
7) Cost (e.g. measure overall costs and/or cost per unit)
Intentionally focus on improving performance
How can we strive to improve productivity and overall performance? Following are some tools to choose from:
1) Lay out a challenge (illustrated by the closing story)
2) Enhanced Training & Development
3) Provide recognition and use incentives
4) Pursue wise use of technology
5) Look for process improvements
6) Be a better servant leader and show more care for your employees
7) Solicit ideas from your team members
8) Learn from other successful teams
Let me close with the following story from the life of Charles Schwab, former head of U.S. Steel. Schwab said:
I had a mill manager who was finely educated, thoroughly capable and master of every detail of the business. But he seemed unable to inspire his men to do their best.
One day I asked him: “How is it that a man as able as you, cannot make this mil turn out what it should?” “I don’t know” he replied. “I have coaxed the men; I have pushed them; I have sworn at them. I have done everything in my power. Yet they will not produce.”
It was near the end of the day; in a few minutes the night force would come on duty. I turned to a workman who was standing beside one of the red-mouthed furnaces and asked him for a piece of chalk. “How many heats has your shift made today?” I queried. “Six” he replied. I chalked a big “6” on the floor, and then passed along without another word.
When the night shift came in they saw the “6” and asked about it. “The big boss was in here today”, said the day men. “He asked us how many heats we had made, and we told him six. He chalked it down.”
The next morning I passed through the same mill. I saw that the “6” had been rubbed out and a big “7” written instead. The night shift had announced itself. That night I went back. The “7” had been erased, and a “10” swaggered in its place. The day force recognized no superiors. Thus a fine competition was started, and it went on until this mill, formerly the poorest producer, was turning out more than any other mill in the company.
Good luck as you partner with your team and intentionally pursue a higher level of performance!
Wes can be contacted at Wes.Friesen@pgn.com.
Monday, December 6, 2010
With economy improving, IT departments hit the ground running
Posted by Mark Brousseau
High performing information technology (IT) departments at large companies have hit the ground running following the recent economic downturn, recalibrating their efforts to drive more business value from IT, and leaving their less adroit counterparts playing catch-up, according to new research from Accenture.
While many companies slipped into stagnation mode during the downturn, cutting budgets and focusing primarily on maintenance, high-performing organizations viewed IT as a growth engine for their business and the economic conditions as an opportunity to build capability.
Accenture defines high performers in IT as those that achieve excellence in IT execution, IT agility and IT innovation together, balancing the constant and sometimes opposing demands placed on today’s IT function.
High performers in IT not only manage IT like a business, but run IT for the business and with the business. CIOs at these organizations are engaged in their company’s business strategies and are able to truly map out how IT supports those strategies.
“Our survey found that chief information officers (CIOs) of high performance IT organizations are deeply involved in business outcomes and closely attuned to business needs – current and future – across the enterprise,” said Gary Curtis, Accenture’s chief technology strategist. “They are successfully retiring their legacy systems and embracing newer technologies. They are adept at managing the balance between optimizing costs and ensuring that they have the budget, skills, and resources to help fuel business growth.”
The research also found that high performers don’t just do a few things well; they excel across the board when compared to lower performing IT departments. Some examples:
... They have web-enabled 42 percent more of their customer interactions and 93 percent more of their suppliers’ interactions ;
... They are 44 percent more likely to recognize the strategic role IT plays in increasing customer satisfaction;
... They are eight times more likely to measure the benefits realized from IT initiatives;
... They spend 29 percent more annually on developing and implementing new applications rather than on maintaining existing ones; and
... They are twice as likely to view workforce performance as a priority by addressing challenges such as an aging workforce and collaboration, as well as developing technical and soft skills (business knowledge, relationship management)
“High performing IT departments are powerful drivers of value for their organizations – not simply keeping the lights on, but promoting technology initiatives that power innovation and enable the IT organization to function as a business,” said Curtis.
What do you think?
High performing information technology (IT) departments at large companies have hit the ground running following the recent economic downturn, recalibrating their efforts to drive more business value from IT, and leaving their less adroit counterparts playing catch-up, according to new research from Accenture.
While many companies slipped into stagnation mode during the downturn, cutting budgets and focusing primarily on maintenance, high-performing organizations viewed IT as a growth engine for their business and the economic conditions as an opportunity to build capability.
Accenture defines high performers in IT as those that achieve excellence in IT execution, IT agility and IT innovation together, balancing the constant and sometimes opposing demands placed on today’s IT function.
High performers in IT not only manage IT like a business, but run IT for the business and with the business. CIOs at these organizations are engaged in their company’s business strategies and are able to truly map out how IT supports those strategies.
“Our survey found that chief information officers (CIOs) of high performance IT organizations are deeply involved in business outcomes and closely attuned to business needs – current and future – across the enterprise,” said Gary Curtis, Accenture’s chief technology strategist. “They are successfully retiring their legacy systems and embracing newer technologies. They are adept at managing the balance between optimizing costs and ensuring that they have the budget, skills, and resources to help fuel business growth.”
The research also found that high performers don’t just do a few things well; they excel across the board when compared to lower performing IT departments. Some examples:
... They have web-enabled 42 percent more of their customer interactions and 93 percent more of their suppliers’ interactions ;
... They are 44 percent more likely to recognize the strategic role IT plays in increasing customer satisfaction;
... They are eight times more likely to measure the benefits realized from IT initiatives;
... They spend 29 percent more annually on developing and implementing new applications rather than on maintaining existing ones; and
... They are twice as likely to view workforce performance as a priority by addressing challenges such as an aging workforce and collaboration, as well as developing technical and soft skills (business knowledge, relationship management)
“High performing IT departments are powerful drivers of value for their organizations – not simply keeping the lights on, but promoting technology initiatives that power innovation and enable the IT organization to function as a business,” said Curtis.
What do you think?
Cloud computing grows up
By R. Edwin Pearce
The next year will be big for cloud computing, with the technology transitioning from “early adopter status” into a mainstream platform for IT. That’s according to IDC, a leading research and advisory firm, which ranked the maturation of cloud computing among its top IT predictions for 2011.
IDC predicts that spending on public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of the IT industry in 2011, up 30 percent from 2010, as organizations move a wider range of business applications into the cloud. Small and medium-sized business cloud use will surge in 2011, with adoption of some cloud resources topping 33 percent among U.S. midsize firms by year’s end.
“[Cloud computing] can no longer be invested in, or managed, as sandbox efforts around the edges of the market. Instead, they are rapidly becoming the market itself and must be addressed accordingly,” warns Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at Framingham, MA-based IDC.
Gens is exactly right. Organizations of all sizes are taking a hard look at cloud-based solutions as a way to avoid the hefty capital investments and ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs associated with traditional on-premise solutions, and to ensure their IT infrastructure remains up-to-date.
In addition to changing the way organizations access business applications, the growth of cloud computing also will bring mobile banking and payments one step closer to reality, IDC predicts. But this also is true of mobile applications in other industries, most notably healthcare and insurance.
What do you think?
R. Edwin Pearce is executive vice president of sales and corporate development at eGistics, Inc. (www.egisticsinc.com), a leading provider of hosted solutions for payments and document automation. He can be reached at 214-256-4607 or via e-mail at epearce@egisticsinc.com.
The next year will be big for cloud computing, with the technology transitioning from “early adopter status” into a mainstream platform for IT. That’s according to IDC, a leading research and advisory firm, which ranked the maturation of cloud computing among its top IT predictions for 2011.
IDC predicts that spending on public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of the IT industry in 2011, up 30 percent from 2010, as organizations move a wider range of business applications into the cloud. Small and medium-sized business cloud use will surge in 2011, with adoption of some cloud resources topping 33 percent among U.S. midsize firms by year’s end.
“[Cloud computing] can no longer be invested in, or managed, as sandbox efforts around the edges of the market. Instead, they are rapidly becoming the market itself and must be addressed accordingly,” warns Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at Framingham, MA-based IDC.
Gens is exactly right. Organizations of all sizes are taking a hard look at cloud-based solutions as a way to avoid the hefty capital investments and ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs associated with traditional on-premise solutions, and to ensure their IT infrastructure remains up-to-date.
In addition to changing the way organizations access business applications, the growth of cloud computing also will bring mobile banking and payments one step closer to reality, IDC predicts. But this also is true of mobile applications in other industries, most notably healthcare and insurance.
What do you think?
R. Edwin Pearce is executive vice president of sales and corporate development at eGistics, Inc. (www.egisticsinc.com), a leading provider of hosted solutions for payments and document automation. He can be reached at 214-256-4607 or via e-mail at epearce@egisticsinc.com.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Efficiency and Transparency Key Issues in Healthcare Payments Automation
By Lee Barrett of EHNAC
There are major industry shifts already underway that will change how the payment and document industry transacts business. With the complexity of changes taking place in relation to how ARRA, HITECH and HIPAA affect our industries, every payment processor and document manager would be wise to keep a finger on the pulse of the hot topics of the day and trends that provide indication of future directions for the industry.
One important change is the fact that providers and banks will be able to provide reconciled data streams so that any needed claim adjustments can be minimized and there can be a marrying of the remittance and electronic funds transfer. The benefit of this reconciliation is that manual intervention becomes minimal for inputting data into accounts payable applications, and there are few additional contractual adjustments required as compared to the large number needed today. This is, of course, all to the benefit of the provider organization and ultimately the patient or payer.
The second recent trend is, in fact, the revitalization of an old trend. With the ever-increasing cost of health insurance, organizations are seeking more economical solutions to meet the needs of their employees. As a result of this, the industry is seeing healthcare savings plans regaining traction at a significant rate. Health savings accounts or HSAs are most frequently used in conjunction with a benefit debit card, and give employees the benefit of being able to put pre-tax dollars toward deductible payment or coverage of other health related services. Given the complexities of HITECH, HIPAA and COBRA, organizations and financial institutions offering HSAs are required to keep track of changing regulations regarding excise taxes and concerns related to health and financial data security, privacy and confidentiality.
A third recent trend the industry is witnessing arises from the consumer demand for transparency in their healthcare experience, and the desire to have all healthcare payment and records available through a single portal. These “Wealth Care portals” provide for connections and efficient processing of all healthcare needs for a patient, allowing a patient to determine what they owe different providers, by tracking their invoices and payments through a single site. These portals would also give patients the ability to make better-informed decisions, make use of calculators and tools to determine costs and savings and track the status of claims made to their health insurance.
The electronic healthcare and payment-document processing worlds are changing rapidly, with exciting developments coming to light almost daily. To ensure that these trends truly benefit our own customers, it makes sense to stay abreast of the changes, and constantly analyze what the changes mean to our organizations as well as to our stakeholders.
Lee Barrett is executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC).
There are major industry shifts already underway that will change how the payment and document industry transacts business. With the complexity of changes taking place in relation to how ARRA, HITECH and HIPAA affect our industries, every payment processor and document manager would be wise to keep a finger on the pulse of the hot topics of the day and trends that provide indication of future directions for the industry.
One important change is the fact that providers and banks will be able to provide reconciled data streams so that any needed claim adjustments can be minimized and there can be a marrying of the remittance and electronic funds transfer. The benefit of this reconciliation is that manual intervention becomes minimal for inputting data into accounts payable applications, and there are few additional contractual adjustments required as compared to the large number needed today. This is, of course, all to the benefit of the provider organization and ultimately the patient or payer.
The second recent trend is, in fact, the revitalization of an old trend. With the ever-increasing cost of health insurance, organizations are seeking more economical solutions to meet the needs of their employees. As a result of this, the industry is seeing healthcare savings plans regaining traction at a significant rate. Health savings accounts or HSAs are most frequently used in conjunction with a benefit debit card, and give employees the benefit of being able to put pre-tax dollars toward deductible payment or coverage of other health related services. Given the complexities of HITECH, HIPAA and COBRA, organizations and financial institutions offering HSAs are required to keep track of changing regulations regarding excise taxes and concerns related to health and financial data security, privacy and confidentiality.
A third recent trend the industry is witnessing arises from the consumer demand for transparency in their healthcare experience, and the desire to have all healthcare payment and records available through a single portal. These “Wealth Care portals” provide for connections and efficient processing of all healthcare needs for a patient, allowing a patient to determine what they owe different providers, by tracking their invoices and payments through a single site. These portals would also give patients the ability to make better-informed decisions, make use of calculators and tools to determine costs and savings and track the status of claims made to their health insurance.
The electronic healthcare and payment-document processing worlds are changing rapidly, with exciting developments coming to light almost daily. To ensure that these trends truly benefit our own customers, it makes sense to stay abreast of the changes, and constantly analyze what the changes mean to our organizations as well as to our stakeholders.
Lee Barrett is executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC).
7 Major Projects CIOs Should Consider
Posted by Mark Brousseau
With 2011 predicted to be the year when the IT industry will reach nearly $3.5 trillion in revenue and show long-term growth for the next five years, Gartner analysts say there are seven business and IT issues that warrant the greatest attention and demand the clearest strategies for the future.
“We are increasingly living, playing and working in a digital world where people will have no alternatives but to become ‘more digital’ with the assets they have available,” said Stephen Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “In 2012, the Internet will be 75 times larger than it was in 2002, and if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest in the world (after China and India). Device and data proliferation is also a reality that cannot be escaped. Smart devices will rise from 60 billion devices in 2010 to more than 200 billion in 2020.”
“Technology is no longer the preserve of the CIO,” said Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “It has become everyone’s property and everyone’s issue.”
With the IT industry on track to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4 percent for the next five years Gartner has identified seven business and IT issues that CIOs should act on during the next three years. “CIOs will need to begin implementing these technologies within three years to meet the six year predictions,” McGee said. The seven issues include:
IT/OT Alignment- Inadequate software management of operational technology (OT) systems will result in a major business failure of a top Global 100 company by 2013.
Executives are realizing there are cost savings and management efficiencies to be gained by integrating the IT and OT groups together. Although efforts to integrate groups are challenging, benefits from streamlined budgets, coordinated planning, consistent technology architectural decisions and maximizing technology purchasing power make for extremely compelling cases for IT and OT group integration.
Business Gets Social -Through 2015, 80 percent of organizations will lack a coherent approach for dealing with information from the collective.
Today, social media is changing the way business is conducted. “Understanding the power of communities, the multiple personas of their members expectations, their aspirations and how to interact with them will become essential skills for business in the 21st century,” said McGee. “However, vast sums of money and enormous amounts of time will be spent during this decade and beyond to discover how IT and business leaders best capitalize on the growing spread, power and influence of social networks.”
Pattern-Based Strategy- Through 2015, pattern-seeking technology will be the fastest-growing intelligence investment among the most successful Global 2000.
A Pattern-Based Strategy provides a framework to proactively seek, model and adapt to leading indicators, often-termed "weak" signals that form patterns in the marketplace. It will allow IT leaders to seek-out patterns amidst the burgeoning information sources and model future possibilities. “We have found that senior business and IT leaders see lack of information shareability as a barrier to growth,” Prentice said.
Cloud Computing- By 2016, all Global 2000 companies will use public cloud services.
Cloud computing represents a shift in the relationship between the providers and consumers of IT-based solutions. It constitutes the basis of a discontinuity that amounts to a new opportunity to shape the relationship between those who use IT services and those who sell them. Gartner said worldwide cloud services revenue (including public and private services) is forecast to reach $148.8 billion in 2014.
Context-Aware Computing- By 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based.
Context-aware computing will foster people to be more digital with the assets they have available. Context-aware computing is taking advantage of location and time and is a new era of augmented reality. More than $150 billion of global telecom spending will shift from services to applications by 2012, and the global market for context-aware services will amount to $215 billion.
“Unlocking this potential will be one of the next major challenges for IT,” said McGee. “For example, we expect 75 percent of new search installations to include a social search element. The world is digital and business leaders can’t ignore it.”
Sustainability- By 2016, sustainability will be the fastest-growing enterprise compliance expense worldwide.
As long as the current science surrounding climate change remains credible, organizations should anticipate that the current focus on energy, water and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will continue, and this will draw attention to other environmental issues, such as resource depletion, species extinction, bio-diversity and environmental justice. There will remain many hard trade-offs between an organization’s financial and operational performance and that of its environmental performance. Information systems will be critical in the role — from governance, risk and compliance, through corporate social responsibility systems, to enabling new and more-sustainable business models.
New Realities of IT: Balancing Cost and Innovation with Risk and Governance- Innovation accomplishments will be among the top-three selection criteria for new CIOs by 2016.
With the recent global recession, innovative thinkers must find new ways to create growth — in revenue, jobs and industries — in this new business climate. Cost and value optimization must remain a top priority, while the search for growth continues.
Regulatory and corporate demands for greater attention to risk have already begun to emerge. Gartner also foresees a new emphasis on business change governance.
Beyond 2020, Gartner analysts forecast that two emerging trends will become $1 billion markets. First, human augmentation, a technology that focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body is slowly but steadily becoming a reality and enhancing peoples’ lives.
The second trend is wireless power devices. By 2011, there will be more than 1 billion PCs and 5 billion mobile phones in use in the world, and based on the levels of demand Gartner foresees cumulative sales from wireless power products surpassing $1 billion by 2020.
“We are reaching these observations by exploring future IT growth and future adoption projections upon demand,” McGee said. “We are looking at emerging business and societal trends and based upon our findings, we will indicate likely future IT winners and losers. This methodology will not replace any existing methodologies, but simply complement existing models.”
“Looking forward, we expect to see more deployment of existing technologies in new and innovative ways, and fewer and fewer genuinely new technologies emerging in the mainstream,” said Prentice. “That is not to imply that no new developments will occur, but we are now starting to see the early indications of precursor and trigger technologies for the next wave of technology, which is likely to run from about 2025 through 2080.”
What do you think?
With 2011 predicted to be the year when the IT industry will reach nearly $3.5 trillion in revenue and show long-term growth for the next five years, Gartner analysts say there are seven business and IT issues that warrant the greatest attention and demand the clearest strategies for the future.
“We are increasingly living, playing and working in a digital world where people will have no alternatives but to become ‘more digital’ with the assets they have available,” said Stephen Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “In 2012, the Internet will be 75 times larger than it was in 2002, and if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest in the world (after China and India). Device and data proliferation is also a reality that cannot be escaped. Smart devices will rise from 60 billion devices in 2010 to more than 200 billion in 2020.”
“Technology is no longer the preserve of the CIO,” said Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “It has become everyone’s property and everyone’s issue.”
With the IT industry on track to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4 percent for the next five years Gartner has identified seven business and IT issues that CIOs should act on during the next three years. “CIOs will need to begin implementing these technologies within three years to meet the six year predictions,” McGee said. The seven issues include:
IT/OT Alignment- Inadequate software management of operational technology (OT) systems will result in a major business failure of a top Global 100 company by 2013.
Executives are realizing there are cost savings and management efficiencies to be gained by integrating the IT and OT groups together. Although efforts to integrate groups are challenging, benefits from streamlined budgets, coordinated planning, consistent technology architectural decisions and maximizing technology purchasing power make for extremely compelling cases for IT and OT group integration.
Business Gets Social -Through 2015, 80 percent of organizations will lack a coherent approach for dealing with information from the collective.
Today, social media is changing the way business is conducted. “Understanding the power of communities, the multiple personas of their members expectations, their aspirations and how to interact with them will become essential skills for business in the 21st century,” said McGee. “However, vast sums of money and enormous amounts of time will be spent during this decade and beyond to discover how IT and business leaders best capitalize on the growing spread, power and influence of social networks.”
Pattern-Based Strategy- Through 2015, pattern-seeking technology will be the fastest-growing intelligence investment among the most successful Global 2000.
A Pattern-Based Strategy provides a framework to proactively seek, model and adapt to leading indicators, often-termed "weak" signals that form patterns in the marketplace. It will allow IT leaders to seek-out patterns amidst the burgeoning information sources and model future possibilities. “We have found that senior business and IT leaders see lack of information shareability as a barrier to growth,” Prentice said.
Cloud Computing- By 2016, all Global 2000 companies will use public cloud services.
Cloud computing represents a shift in the relationship between the providers and consumers of IT-based solutions. It constitutes the basis of a discontinuity that amounts to a new opportunity to shape the relationship between those who use IT services and those who sell them. Gartner said worldwide cloud services revenue (including public and private services) is forecast to reach $148.8 billion in 2014.
Context-Aware Computing- By 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based.
Context-aware computing will foster people to be more digital with the assets they have available. Context-aware computing is taking advantage of location and time and is a new era of augmented reality. More than $150 billion of global telecom spending will shift from services to applications by 2012, and the global market for context-aware services will amount to $215 billion.
“Unlocking this potential will be one of the next major challenges for IT,” said McGee. “For example, we expect 75 percent of new search installations to include a social search element. The world is digital and business leaders can’t ignore it.”
Sustainability- By 2016, sustainability will be the fastest-growing enterprise compliance expense worldwide.
As long as the current science surrounding climate change remains credible, organizations should anticipate that the current focus on energy, water and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will continue, and this will draw attention to other environmental issues, such as resource depletion, species extinction, bio-diversity and environmental justice. There will remain many hard trade-offs between an organization’s financial and operational performance and that of its environmental performance. Information systems will be critical in the role — from governance, risk and compliance, through corporate social responsibility systems, to enabling new and more-sustainable business models.
New Realities of IT: Balancing Cost and Innovation with Risk and Governance- Innovation accomplishments will be among the top-three selection criteria for new CIOs by 2016.
With the recent global recession, innovative thinkers must find new ways to create growth — in revenue, jobs and industries — in this new business climate. Cost and value optimization must remain a top priority, while the search for growth continues.
Regulatory and corporate demands for greater attention to risk have already begun to emerge. Gartner also foresees a new emphasis on business change governance.
Beyond 2020, Gartner analysts forecast that two emerging trends will become $1 billion markets. First, human augmentation, a technology that focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body is slowly but steadily becoming a reality and enhancing peoples’ lives.
The second trend is wireless power devices. By 2011, there will be more than 1 billion PCs and 5 billion mobile phones in use in the world, and based on the levels of demand Gartner foresees cumulative sales from wireless power products surpassing $1 billion by 2020.
“We are reaching these observations by exploring future IT growth and future adoption projections upon demand,” McGee said. “We are looking at emerging business and societal trends and based upon our findings, we will indicate likely future IT winners and losers. This methodology will not replace any existing methodologies, but simply complement existing models.”
“Looking forward, we expect to see more deployment of existing technologies in new and innovative ways, and fewer and fewer genuinely new technologies emerging in the mainstream,” said Prentice. “That is not to imply that no new developments will occur, but we are now starting to see the early indications of precursor and trigger technologies for the next wave of technology, which is likely to run from about 2025 through 2080.”
What do you think?
Monday, November 15, 2010
AFP Conference Attendees Ready to Buy
Posted by Mark Brousseau
After years of being relegated to the sidelines as a result of the economic downturn, attendees at this week's AFP Annual Conference at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, appeared to be back in the buying game, reports Mario Villarreal (mvillarreal@usdataworks.com), president and COO of Houston-based US Dataworks, Inc. (www.usdataworks.com). As evidence, Villarreal pointed to the advertised 30 percent bump in attendance, better booth traffic, and the more substantive conversations with prospects compared to last year.
"After several years of sitting through vendor presentations and strategizing internally about enterprise payments, many of the organizations at AFP appeared ready to buy," Villarreal said. "Based on the conversations we had at AFP, I think we will see a significant number of enterprise payments deals close next year." Villarreal said banks, in particular, appeared interested in enterprise payments.
Two key factors are driving the demand for enterprise payments, Villarreal said. First, operations have reached the breaking point in terms of effectively managing their existing payment silos. By consolidating all of their paper-based and electronic payment channels onto a single platform, organizations can reduce cost, eliminate redundant systems and processes, improve availability, gain better visibility into their payments, and apply consistent controls across their payment streams.
Second, organizations are more confident that they will have the budget necessary next year to kick-off an enterprise payments initiative. Furthermore, banks may be looking to make internal investments that deliver a reasonable rate of return rather than parking their cash and earning a measly 25 basis points, Villarreal said. "By no means are operations flush with cash, but IT budget dollars are loosening up for projects with a clear ROI, and enterprise payments fit that bill," he said.
What do you think?
After years of being relegated to the sidelines as a result of the economic downturn, attendees at this week's AFP Annual Conference at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, appeared to be back in the buying game, reports Mario Villarreal (mvillarreal@usdataworks.com), president and COO of Houston-based US Dataworks, Inc. (www.usdataworks.com). As evidence, Villarreal pointed to the advertised 30 percent bump in attendance, better booth traffic, and the more substantive conversations with prospects compared to last year.
"After several years of sitting through vendor presentations and strategizing internally about enterprise payments, many of the organizations at AFP appeared ready to buy," Villarreal said. "Based on the conversations we had at AFP, I think we will see a significant number of enterprise payments deals close next year." Villarreal said banks, in particular, appeared interested in enterprise payments.
Two key factors are driving the demand for enterprise payments, Villarreal said. First, operations have reached the breaking point in terms of effectively managing their existing payment silos. By consolidating all of their paper-based and electronic payment channels onto a single platform, organizations can reduce cost, eliminate redundant systems and processes, improve availability, gain better visibility into their payments, and apply consistent controls across their payment streams.
Second, organizations are more confident that they will have the budget necessary next year to kick-off an enterprise payments initiative. Furthermore, banks may be looking to make internal investments that deliver a reasonable rate of return rather than parking their cash and earning a measly 25 basis points, Villarreal said. "By no means are operations flush with cash, but IT budget dollars are loosening up for projects with a clear ROI, and enterprise payments fit that bill," he said.
What do you think?
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Consumer Bill Payers Want Incentives To Go Electronic
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Consumers pay a lot of bills, and they pay those bills in myriad combinations of channels and methods. Consumers’ bill pay behavior isn’t a trivial matter—changes in behavior can result in millions of dollars of additional or lost revenue, or millions of dollars in cost savings.
Despite the increasing popularity of the Internet and the emergence of the mobile channel as a way to transact and interact, checks sent through the mail remain the most prevalent method for paying bills in the United States.
Aite Group says the number of bill payments made through the mail will fall just short of 5 billion for 2010, accounting for about one-third of all payments made, whereas payments made at a biller site—including recurring and mobile payments—will account for 23% of all bills paid in 2010.
Looking to the future, however, consumers’ bill pay behavior is very likely to change, Aite Group predicts. Roughly four in 10 consumers say they would change how they pay their bills if they received rewards for paying with a debit or credit card, or received a cash incentive for changing their behavior, the research and advisory firm reports. In addition, the rapid adoption of smartphones will help drive bill pay behavior change over the next three years.
“There’s an emerging segment of consumers—which we call Smartphonatics—that will lead to an increase in the use of the online and mobile channels for paying bills,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group. “These young and affluent consumers are chomping at the bit to use their smartphones, and are very likely to change how they pay bills if it becomes easier to do so via mobile. The growth of biller-direct over consolidator, coupled with the projected growth in mobile payments, means an opportunity for bill pay solutions providers to create an industry-leading mobile platform.”
What are you seeing?
Consumers pay a lot of bills, and they pay those bills in myriad combinations of channels and methods. Consumers’ bill pay behavior isn’t a trivial matter—changes in behavior can result in millions of dollars of additional or lost revenue, or millions of dollars in cost savings.
Despite the increasing popularity of the Internet and the emergence of the mobile channel as a way to transact and interact, checks sent through the mail remain the most prevalent method for paying bills in the United States.
Aite Group says the number of bill payments made through the mail will fall just short of 5 billion for 2010, accounting for about one-third of all payments made, whereas payments made at a biller site—including recurring and mobile payments—will account for 23% of all bills paid in 2010.
Looking to the future, however, consumers’ bill pay behavior is very likely to change, Aite Group predicts. Roughly four in 10 consumers say they would change how they pay their bills if they received rewards for paying with a debit or credit card, or received a cash incentive for changing their behavior, the research and advisory firm reports. In addition, the rapid adoption of smartphones will help drive bill pay behavior change over the next three years.
“There’s an emerging segment of consumers—which we call Smartphonatics—that will lead to an increase in the use of the online and mobile channels for paying bills,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group. “These young and affluent consumers are chomping at the bit to use their smartphones, and are very likely to change how they pay bills if it becomes easier to do so via mobile. The growth of biller-direct over consolidator, coupled with the projected growth in mobile payments, means an opportunity for bill pay solutions providers to create an industry-leading mobile platform.”
What are you seeing?
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Doing "Different" Right
Posted by Mark Brousseau
In today's business world, "business as usual" is likely to put you out of business. If you're using the same old marketing strategies today because they brought in business in years past, you're in danger of being pummeled by your competition. In order to keep your customers happy (and happily spending!), explains Maribeth Kuzmeski, you have to get their attention, and that means your typical tried-and-true marketing tactics aren't going to cut it anymore. To beat your competition, she says you have to stand out and find ways to be you—uniquely!
"With all the noise in your clients' and potential clients' daily lives, it certainly hasn't become any easier to attract attention and appeal to your target market," says Kuzmeski, author of the new book ...And the Clients Went Wild! How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want (Wiley, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-60176-1, $24.95, www.AndTheClientsWentWild.com). "But for your business to survive, you have to find ways to cut through that noise. Attracting attention often means that you have to step outside of the current norms and stand out."
If you aren't sure where to get started, Kuzmeski suggests taking a cue from other companies that have taken innovation to heart and used it to successfully win and keep customers.
Read on for some innovation inspiration from companies that found ways to make their customers take notice—while sticking with their values:
The Difference Maker: Buc-ee's
The Dared to Be Difference: Banking on bathrooms. Sometimes what your competitors consider to be "unimportant" may just turn out to be the differentiation that gets customers coming back for more. Buc-ee's gas stations—located throughout Texas—have focused their number-one offering on what people dread most about stopping at a gas station: the bathrooms! Each of the 30 locations has incredibly clean, substantially sized bathrooms, along with full-time attendants to keep them in tip-top shape. Buc-ee's built their entire business around the bathrooms—a feature they knew they could use to differentiate their business.
"This is a great example of how looking at things from a different perspective can really pay off," Kuzmeski says. "Instead of focusing on what clients liked about their industry, they chose to plan their strategy around what customers liked the least and improve upon it. Think about what people dislike most about your industry, service, or product offering. What solutions can you offer? It's a great way to differentiate yourself from your competition and to create some buzz in the process!"
The Difference Maker: Odwalla
The Dared to Be Difference: Juicing with a conscience. Juice company Odwalla was founded in Santa Cruz, California, in 1980 by Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy, and Bonnie Bassett. The trio took the idea of selling fruit juices from a business guidebook. They began by squeezing orange juice with a secondhand juicer in a shed in Steltenpohl's backyard. Their plan was to make enough profit to help fund music programs in local schools.
Odwalla was driven by a corporate conscience and a goal of leading the public toward a closer-to-nature way of nourishing their bodies. The juices were very highly rated for taste. But the true success came in the way that they appealed to their customers. The founders hired marketing and advertising experts and created what they called their "Drink Tank"—a group responsible for developing and managing the Odwalla brand. In building the brand, members of the "Drink Tank" focused on authenticity, alignment, clear narrative, and the value of a strong corporate culture.
"With very little advertising, Odwalla differentiated their brand by extolling the benefits of drinking and supporting a 'juice with a conscience,'" says Kuzmeski. "As a result, people cared and followed and bought. Odwalla appealed to their customers' consciences and it paid off. Essentially, they called their customers' consciences to action. But the strength of that call to action led them to success. How strong is your call to action? Do you frequently tell your customers what you want them to do? It can be an incredible way to drive your customers and potential customers to do exactly what you want them to do."
The Difference Maker: Geico
The Dared to Be Difference: Ensuring brand awareness. When you think Geico, what comes to mind? Perhaps their slogan, "Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more...." Or maybe that gecko with the British accent. Or the stack of money with the eyeballs that seems to distract and attract everyone near it. Or those oft-offended cavemen. Or maybe—just maybe—you think of all four! Geico has done a particularly remarkable job at grabbing attention for their insurance products. And they've done it by frequently and consistently distributing their simple and somewhat annoying messages to establish brand awareness.
"For Geico, frequency of their messages has brought them incredible brand awareness," explains Kuzmeski. "You don't have to have millions to spend on TV, radio, and print advertising to achieve the level of recognition Geico has achieved. What Geico has done is simply repeat, over and over, their message to their prospects. Think about what you can do to repeat your marketing messages to your target market. Do you frequently repeat your core benefits or offerings to your prospects? It's a simple tactic that can yield high results."
The Difference Maker: The Australian Government
The Dared to Be Difference: Offering the world's best job. The Australian Government promoted what they described simply as "the best job in the world" with a creative and extremely successful Internet campaign. The position they were advertising was a six-month contract to be caretaker of a series of islands in the Great Barrier Reef. The government released the story through traditional media (Reuters) and then sustained the buzz over an array of online networks including YouTube, Ning, Twitter, and Facebook. The contest's website received one million hits the day after its launch when the campaign's goal had been to receive just 400,000 hits over the course of the year. Furthermore, the program attracted over 34,000 applicants and generated over $70 million worth of global publicity.
"The lesson here is an important one," asserts Kuzmeski. "You have to evoke an emotion in your customers if you want a response from them. Whether it's hope, love, happiness, anger, or even hate, you want them to feel something. When people are passionate about something, they will act on it, tell their friends about it, and get involved. Think about what messages your company can convey that might provoke an intense reaction."
The Difference Maker: Vistaprint
The Dared to Be Difference: Giving it away for free. As a global company, Vistaprint employs more than 1,850 people, and ships to more than 120 countries around the world. The secret to their huge success? Business cards. Vistaprint wanted to offer their customers something that no other printing company did, so they decided that their hallmark would be jaw-dropping value. By offering 250 business cards for free, with a nominal $5.67 shipping and processing charge, they were able to appeal to their target market: cost-conscious small businesses. Today, 66 percent of Vistaprint's business comes from returning customers. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, they acquired 1.4 million new customers—many who started with a free order.
The Difference Maker: The Bargains Group
The Dared to Be Difference: Teaming up for A-level customer service.Jody Steinhauer began The Bargains Group in 1988 from her kitchen table by purchasing a variety of different clothing and reselling it to discount clothing stores. Today, she runs a multi-million-dollar firm with over 4,000 different items for sale, but the most interesting aspect of the company is its employees.
The Bargains Group is a discount wholesaler of promotional business products, family clothing, accessories, gifts, toys, bedding and linens, personal hygiene products, and tradeshow promotional materials. So how exactly does a small firm with only 20 employees manage to make millions every year without offering prices much lower than their competitors? It's simple: They hire the right people. By focusing on hiring fun, vivacious people who believe strongly in the culture of service, they are able to actually service each of their customers personally. They don't even have a voicemail system!
"While a lot of firms advertise how 'different' their people are, or how they focus on service, The Bargains Group actually proves this assertion," says Kuzmeski. "They don't advertise or employ salespeople—yet they manage to make millions of dollars selling their products. Make sure that your staff is a differentiator for your company. There is great value in good customer service. Happy customers will not only stick around, they will also spread the word!"
The Difference Maker: Dillard's Septic Service
The Dared to Be Difference: Doing the dirty work (literally). James Dillard, owner of Dillard's Septic Service in Annapolis, Maryland, runs a business that most others might consider "beneath" them. Yet Dillard earns a six-figure income doing what many of us would call mundane, boring, or downright disgusting. An October 10, 2007, article in USA Today by Del Jones, entitled "A Dirty Job, But Someone Has to Get Rich Doing It," featured Dillard and other business owners who have entered into careers that many others simply would not. And it is a potential avenue for business owners who are looking for a way to generate more income. In fact, in the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans for 2009, less than glamorous fields and products—including discount tires, roofing, salsa, lumber, and tequila—have produced extraordinary income.
"You might not consider these to be businesses that would create such great wealth," says Kuzmeski. "But all of these business owners found their niche, and, through it, their differentiation. Think about a product or service that you can offer that no one else will. You don't always have to be wracking your brain to come up with a product or service that is better than anything your competitors offer. You can also come up with a product or service that they simply won't offer. Products or services that others are afraid to touch can mean big opportunities for you!"
The Difference Maker: Man Cave
The Dared to Be Difference: "Manning" up before the rest. Who would have thought a Tupperware-type party for men would be a good idea? Cofounders Nick Beste and Kevin Carlow saw the success stories from female-centric companies like Tupperware, Silpada, and Partylite and thought, why not? As a result, they created Man Cave, an in-home party where hosts throw "Meatings" complete with a set of "Man Laws." For years, thousands of companies have demonstrated and sold products to groups of women in their homes. Now Man Cave does it for men. They aren't just the leader in their industry; they ARE the industry—and they anticipate crossing the $3-million mark by November 2010.
"Don't shy away from an idea just because it's never been done before," Kuzmeski explains. "In fact, discovering an untapped market can be like striking gold in this economy. Instead of following trends, you have to be brave enough to be a trendsetter. It can be the gateway to a big idea and a big payoff."
The Difference Maker: Realtor and Inventor Jean Newell
The Dared to Be Difference: Recognizing it's not what you know, it's who you know.
Veteran Realtor Jean Newell had an idea for her fellow real estate agents. She invented a personal utility pouch (PUP)—a multi-zippered mini-pack designed to carry all the technical tools, keys, contracts, and more that a real estate agent needs. Judging by the initial reaction she received, she knew she was on to something that people wanted. Her objective was to get on QVC, but she was turned down by gatekeepers again and again.
So she decided to reach out to her network, which consisted of other agents, buyers, sellers, etc., and ask for their help. She sent out an email requesting help to find a contact person at QVC for her new product and received an overwhelming response. Within a few days, she had 40 emails from people providing contacts at QVC. She created a quick video to show how she would promote the bag and sent it off to QVC. Within two weeks, she was accepted! Since her initial appearance on QVC, Newell has become a sales superstar and media darling.
The Difference Maker: Toy House
The Dared to Be Difference: Advertising curiosity. In Jackson, Michigan, a city and state hit hard by the economy, toy store owner Phil Wrzesinski was struggling to compete against local big box competitors like Toys "R" Us, Target, and Walmart. And then he had an idea. In August 2008 he began running ads on the local radio station that had local DJs wondering what was in the men's bathroom of the store. Droves of customers started coming in to see what actually wasin the men's bathroom. (The product in question, by the way, was a nightlight that projects stars on to the ceiling and walls of a darkened room.) The result? Despite the down economy, Toy House has seen a steady increase in both loyalty and sales ever since!
"Just because your product may be ordinary, it doesn't mean your promotion of it has to be," advises Kuzmeski. "Clever advertising can peak interest, create buzz, and get people talking—exactly what you want at a time like this. Don't be afraid to take risks with your promotion. Show that your company has an edge. It will set you apart from your competitors."
"To beat your competition in today's economy, you have to be offering something that no one else is—be it a unique product, promotion, offer, staff, or culture," says Kuzmeski. "You can't expect to keep customers coming back if you are offering only the status quo. Don't be afraid to take risks, think outside the box, and be a little daring. Not only will you grow your business, you'll find yourself inspired, recharged, and motivated."
What do you think?
In today's business world, "business as usual" is likely to put you out of business. If you're using the same old marketing strategies today because they brought in business in years past, you're in danger of being pummeled by your competition. In order to keep your customers happy (and happily spending!), explains Maribeth Kuzmeski, you have to get their attention, and that means your typical tried-and-true marketing tactics aren't going to cut it anymore. To beat your competition, she says you have to stand out and find ways to be you—uniquely!
"With all the noise in your clients' and potential clients' daily lives, it certainly hasn't become any easier to attract attention and appeal to your target market," says Kuzmeski, author of the new book ...And the Clients Went Wild! How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want (Wiley, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-60176-1, $24.95, www.AndTheClientsWentWild.com). "But for your business to survive, you have to find ways to cut through that noise. Attracting attention often means that you have to step outside of the current norms and stand out."
If you aren't sure where to get started, Kuzmeski suggests taking a cue from other companies that have taken innovation to heart and used it to successfully win and keep customers.
Read on for some innovation inspiration from companies that found ways to make their customers take notice—while sticking with their values:
The Difference Maker: Buc-ee's
The Dared to Be Difference: Banking on bathrooms. Sometimes what your competitors consider to be "unimportant" may just turn out to be the differentiation that gets customers coming back for more. Buc-ee's gas stations—located throughout Texas—have focused their number-one offering on what people dread most about stopping at a gas station: the bathrooms! Each of the 30 locations has incredibly clean, substantially sized bathrooms, along with full-time attendants to keep them in tip-top shape. Buc-ee's built their entire business around the bathrooms—a feature they knew they could use to differentiate their business.
"This is a great example of how looking at things from a different perspective can really pay off," Kuzmeski says. "Instead of focusing on what clients liked about their industry, they chose to plan their strategy around what customers liked the least and improve upon it. Think about what people dislike most about your industry, service, or product offering. What solutions can you offer? It's a great way to differentiate yourself from your competition and to create some buzz in the process!"
The Difference Maker: Odwalla
The Dared to Be Difference: Juicing with a conscience. Juice company Odwalla was founded in Santa Cruz, California, in 1980 by Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy, and Bonnie Bassett. The trio took the idea of selling fruit juices from a business guidebook. They began by squeezing orange juice with a secondhand juicer in a shed in Steltenpohl's backyard. Their plan was to make enough profit to help fund music programs in local schools.
Odwalla was driven by a corporate conscience and a goal of leading the public toward a closer-to-nature way of nourishing their bodies. The juices were very highly rated for taste. But the true success came in the way that they appealed to their customers. The founders hired marketing and advertising experts and created what they called their "Drink Tank"—a group responsible for developing and managing the Odwalla brand. In building the brand, members of the "Drink Tank" focused on authenticity, alignment, clear narrative, and the value of a strong corporate culture.
"With very little advertising, Odwalla differentiated their brand by extolling the benefits of drinking and supporting a 'juice with a conscience,'" says Kuzmeski. "As a result, people cared and followed and bought. Odwalla appealed to their customers' consciences and it paid off. Essentially, they called their customers' consciences to action. But the strength of that call to action led them to success. How strong is your call to action? Do you frequently tell your customers what you want them to do? It can be an incredible way to drive your customers and potential customers to do exactly what you want them to do."
The Difference Maker: Geico
The Dared to Be Difference: Ensuring brand awareness. When you think Geico, what comes to mind? Perhaps their slogan, "Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more...." Or maybe that gecko with the British accent. Or the stack of money with the eyeballs that seems to distract and attract everyone near it. Or those oft-offended cavemen. Or maybe—just maybe—you think of all four! Geico has done a particularly remarkable job at grabbing attention for their insurance products. And they've done it by frequently and consistently distributing their simple and somewhat annoying messages to establish brand awareness.
"For Geico, frequency of their messages has brought them incredible brand awareness," explains Kuzmeski. "You don't have to have millions to spend on TV, radio, and print advertising to achieve the level of recognition Geico has achieved. What Geico has done is simply repeat, over and over, their message to their prospects. Think about what you can do to repeat your marketing messages to your target market. Do you frequently repeat your core benefits or offerings to your prospects? It's a simple tactic that can yield high results."
The Difference Maker: The Australian Government
The Dared to Be Difference: Offering the world's best job. The Australian Government promoted what they described simply as "the best job in the world" with a creative and extremely successful Internet campaign. The position they were advertising was a six-month contract to be caretaker of a series of islands in the Great Barrier Reef. The government released the story through traditional media (Reuters) and then sustained the buzz over an array of online networks including YouTube, Ning, Twitter, and Facebook. The contest's website received one million hits the day after its launch when the campaign's goal had been to receive just 400,000 hits over the course of the year. Furthermore, the program attracted over 34,000 applicants and generated over $70 million worth of global publicity.
"The lesson here is an important one," asserts Kuzmeski. "You have to evoke an emotion in your customers if you want a response from them. Whether it's hope, love, happiness, anger, or even hate, you want them to feel something. When people are passionate about something, they will act on it, tell their friends about it, and get involved. Think about what messages your company can convey that might provoke an intense reaction."
The Difference Maker: Vistaprint
The Dared to Be Difference: Giving it away for free. As a global company, Vistaprint employs more than 1,850 people, and ships to more than 120 countries around the world. The secret to their huge success? Business cards. Vistaprint wanted to offer their customers something that no other printing company did, so they decided that their hallmark would be jaw-dropping value. By offering 250 business cards for free, with a nominal $5.67 shipping and processing charge, they were able to appeal to their target market: cost-conscious small businesses. Today, 66 percent of Vistaprint's business comes from returning customers. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, they acquired 1.4 million new customers—many who started with a free order.
The Difference Maker: The Bargains Group
The Dared to Be Difference: Teaming up for A-level customer service.Jody Steinhauer began The Bargains Group in 1988 from her kitchen table by purchasing a variety of different clothing and reselling it to discount clothing stores. Today, she runs a multi-million-dollar firm with over 4,000 different items for sale, but the most interesting aspect of the company is its employees.
The Bargains Group is a discount wholesaler of promotional business products, family clothing, accessories, gifts, toys, bedding and linens, personal hygiene products, and tradeshow promotional materials. So how exactly does a small firm with only 20 employees manage to make millions every year without offering prices much lower than their competitors? It's simple: They hire the right people. By focusing on hiring fun, vivacious people who believe strongly in the culture of service, they are able to actually service each of their customers personally. They don't even have a voicemail system!
"While a lot of firms advertise how 'different' their people are, or how they focus on service, The Bargains Group actually proves this assertion," says Kuzmeski. "They don't advertise or employ salespeople—yet they manage to make millions of dollars selling their products. Make sure that your staff is a differentiator for your company. There is great value in good customer service. Happy customers will not only stick around, they will also spread the word!"
The Difference Maker: Dillard's Septic Service
The Dared to Be Difference: Doing the dirty work (literally). James Dillard, owner of Dillard's Septic Service in Annapolis, Maryland, runs a business that most others might consider "beneath" them. Yet Dillard earns a six-figure income doing what many of us would call mundane, boring, or downright disgusting. An October 10, 2007, article in USA Today by Del Jones, entitled "A Dirty Job, But Someone Has to Get Rich Doing It," featured Dillard and other business owners who have entered into careers that many others simply would not. And it is a potential avenue for business owners who are looking for a way to generate more income. In fact, in the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans for 2009, less than glamorous fields and products—including discount tires, roofing, salsa, lumber, and tequila—have produced extraordinary income.
"You might not consider these to be businesses that would create such great wealth," says Kuzmeski. "But all of these business owners found their niche, and, through it, their differentiation. Think about a product or service that you can offer that no one else will. You don't always have to be wracking your brain to come up with a product or service that is better than anything your competitors offer. You can also come up with a product or service that they simply won't offer. Products or services that others are afraid to touch can mean big opportunities for you!"
The Difference Maker: Man Cave
The Dared to Be Difference: "Manning" up before the rest. Who would have thought a Tupperware-type party for men would be a good idea? Cofounders Nick Beste and Kevin Carlow saw the success stories from female-centric companies like Tupperware, Silpada, and Partylite and thought, why not? As a result, they created Man Cave, an in-home party where hosts throw "Meatings" complete with a set of "Man Laws." For years, thousands of companies have demonstrated and sold products to groups of women in their homes. Now Man Cave does it for men. They aren't just the leader in their industry; they ARE the industry—and they anticipate crossing the $3-million mark by November 2010.
"Don't shy away from an idea just because it's never been done before," Kuzmeski explains. "In fact, discovering an untapped market can be like striking gold in this economy. Instead of following trends, you have to be brave enough to be a trendsetter. It can be the gateway to a big idea and a big payoff."
The Difference Maker: Realtor and Inventor Jean Newell
The Dared to Be Difference: Recognizing it's not what you know, it's who you know.
Veteran Realtor Jean Newell had an idea for her fellow real estate agents. She invented a personal utility pouch (PUP)—a multi-zippered mini-pack designed to carry all the technical tools, keys, contracts, and more that a real estate agent needs. Judging by the initial reaction she received, she knew she was on to something that people wanted. Her objective was to get on QVC, but she was turned down by gatekeepers again and again.
So she decided to reach out to her network, which consisted of other agents, buyers, sellers, etc., and ask for their help. She sent out an email requesting help to find a contact person at QVC for her new product and received an overwhelming response. Within a few days, she had 40 emails from people providing contacts at QVC. She created a quick video to show how she would promote the bag and sent it off to QVC. Within two weeks, she was accepted! Since her initial appearance on QVC, Newell has become a sales superstar and media darling.
The Difference Maker: Toy House
The Dared to Be Difference: Advertising curiosity. In Jackson, Michigan, a city and state hit hard by the economy, toy store owner Phil Wrzesinski was struggling to compete against local big box competitors like Toys "R" Us, Target, and Walmart. And then he had an idea. In August 2008 he began running ads on the local radio station that had local DJs wondering what was in the men's bathroom of the store. Droves of customers started coming in to see what actually wasin the men's bathroom. (The product in question, by the way, was a nightlight that projects stars on to the ceiling and walls of a darkened room.) The result? Despite the down economy, Toy House has seen a steady increase in both loyalty and sales ever since!
"Just because your product may be ordinary, it doesn't mean your promotion of it has to be," advises Kuzmeski. "Clever advertising can peak interest, create buzz, and get people talking—exactly what you want at a time like this. Don't be afraid to take risks with your promotion. Show that your company has an edge. It will set you apart from your competitors."
"To beat your competition in today's economy, you have to be offering something that no one else is—be it a unique product, promotion, offer, staff, or culture," says Kuzmeski. "You can't expect to keep customers coming back if you are offering only the status quo. Don't be afraid to take risks, think outside the box, and be a little daring. Not only will you grow your business, you'll find yourself inspired, recharged, and motivated."
What do you think?
Monday, October 25, 2010
Hey, America: TMI!
Posted by Mark Brousseau
A new national survey reveals half of Americans who use social networking sites have seen people divulge too much personal information, yet more than a quarter of Americans (28 percent) who use these sites admit that they rarely think about what could happen if they share too much personal information online.
Additionally, more than four in ten Americans (44 percent) are concerned that the personal information they share online is being used against them, and more than one in five (21 percent) Americans who use social networking sites believe that their personal information has been accessed by people who take advantage of weak privacy settings on social networking sites.
That's according to the 2010 Lawyers.com Social Networking Survey.
“The Lawyers.com Social Networking Survey reveals a clear disconnect between the privacy concerns of users and their actual behaviors and disclosures on social networking sites,” said Carol Eversen, vice president of Marketing at LexisNexis. “Nearly every week we hear about the negative consequences resulting from inappropriate disclosures and uses of personal information on social networking sites, however the data suggests that Americans are not taking the necessary steps to protect themselves.”
More than half of Americans who use social networking sites have seen people divulge too much personal information online. In fact, the majority of Americans who use social networking sites admit that they have posted their first and last name (69 percent), photos of themselves (67 percent), or an email address (51 percent) on a social networking site. In addition, survey respondents have also shared the following details on a social networking site:
•Travel plans (16 percent)
•Cell phone numbers (7 percent)
•Home address (4 percent)
Determining how much is too much is still a struggle for many people. Nearly half of Americans (46 percent) agree that sometimes it is hard to figure out what information to share and what to keep private.
As many Americans struggle with what type of personal information to post online and keep private, they also seldom think about the consequences of sharing personal information online. More than a quarter of Americans (28 percent) admit they rarely think about what could happen if they shared too much personal information online.
A quarter of Americans (25 percent) who use social networking sites say that they have seen people “misrepresent” themselves (e.g., posted incorrect information and created fake profiles) and alarmingly, more than one in ten Americans (14 percent) who use social networking sites say that they have received communication from strangers as a result of sharing information on a social networking site.
Other backlash from using social networking sites includes:
•Someone posting unflattering pictures of them (11 percent)
•Having personal relationships with family or friends affected from revealing too much information (7 percent)
•Being scolded or yelled at for information they’ve posted (6 percent)
Surprisingly, 38 percent of Americans agree that people who share too much of their personal information online deserve to have their information used inappropriately.
Three-quarters of Americans (76 percent) worry that the privacy settings on social networking sites are not adequately protecting their personal information. In addition, more than four in ten Americans (43 percent) admit that they typically just click “agree” without reading the entire terms and conditions on social networking sites.
Meanwhile, many believe that their personal information may already be in the wrong hands. More than four in ten Americans (44 percent) are concerned that the personal information they share online is being used against them, and one in five Americans (21 percent) who use social networking sites believe that their personal information has been accessed by people who take advantage of weak privacy settings on social networking sites.
What do you think?
A new national survey reveals half of Americans who use social networking sites have seen people divulge too much personal information, yet more than a quarter of Americans (28 percent) who use these sites admit that they rarely think about what could happen if they share too much personal information online.
Additionally, more than four in ten Americans (44 percent) are concerned that the personal information they share online is being used against them, and more than one in five (21 percent) Americans who use social networking sites believe that their personal information has been accessed by people who take advantage of weak privacy settings on social networking sites.
That's according to the 2010 Lawyers.com Social Networking Survey.
“The Lawyers.com Social Networking Survey reveals a clear disconnect between the privacy concerns of users and their actual behaviors and disclosures on social networking sites,” said Carol Eversen, vice president of Marketing at LexisNexis. “Nearly every week we hear about the negative consequences resulting from inappropriate disclosures and uses of personal information on social networking sites, however the data suggests that Americans are not taking the necessary steps to protect themselves.”
More than half of Americans who use social networking sites have seen people divulge too much personal information online. In fact, the majority of Americans who use social networking sites admit that they have posted their first and last name (69 percent), photos of themselves (67 percent), or an email address (51 percent) on a social networking site. In addition, survey respondents have also shared the following details on a social networking site:
•Travel plans (16 percent)
•Cell phone numbers (7 percent)
•Home address (4 percent)
Determining how much is too much is still a struggle for many people. Nearly half of Americans (46 percent) agree that sometimes it is hard to figure out what information to share and what to keep private.
As many Americans struggle with what type of personal information to post online and keep private, they also seldom think about the consequences of sharing personal information online. More than a quarter of Americans (28 percent) admit they rarely think about what could happen if they shared too much personal information online.
A quarter of Americans (25 percent) who use social networking sites say that they have seen people “misrepresent” themselves (e.g., posted incorrect information and created fake profiles) and alarmingly, more than one in ten Americans (14 percent) who use social networking sites say that they have received communication from strangers as a result of sharing information on a social networking site.
Other backlash from using social networking sites includes:
•Someone posting unflattering pictures of them (11 percent)
•Having personal relationships with family or friends affected from revealing too much information (7 percent)
•Being scolded or yelled at for information they’ve posted (6 percent)
Surprisingly, 38 percent of Americans agree that people who share too much of their personal information online deserve to have their information used inappropriately.
Three-quarters of Americans (76 percent) worry that the privacy settings on social networking sites are not adequately protecting their personal information. In addition, more than four in ten Americans (43 percent) admit that they typically just click “agree” without reading the entire terms and conditions on social networking sites.
Meanwhile, many believe that their personal information may already be in the wrong hands. More than four in ten Americans (44 percent) are concerned that the personal information they share online is being used against them, and one in five Americans (21 percent) who use social networking sites believe that their personal information has been accessed by people who take advantage of weak privacy settings on social networking sites.
What do you think?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
6 tips for messages that resonate
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Today we are overwhelmed with messages. Some are just 140 characters long. Others are much longer, but they are constantly bombarding us—trying to lure us to acquire and consume information (then repeat the process over and over). Technology—social media specifically—allows for constant communication, but easy communication doesn't necessarily translate to messages that are received, understood, and capable of driving action.
At a time when people are tweeting, blogging, emailing, and more 24/7, the best way to genuinely connect and create change, says author and CEO Nancy Duarte, is via truly human, in-person presentations. She stresses that everyone in every company should know how to present and communicate that company's messages with clarity and passion.
"Great presentations are like magic," says Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design, author of the award-winning book Slide:ology, and author of the new book Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences.
"It takes a lot of work to breathe life into an idea. Spending energy to understand the audience and carefully crafting a message that resonates with them means committing time and discipline to the process. Think about it this way: You likely spend countless hours collaborating and innovating to put forth really good ideas. You should spend just as much energy ensuring they are delivered in a way that is impactful. The payoff is that learning how to present in a captivating way—be it at a formal event or to a client across the conference room table—can be your competitive edge in a business environment where too many companies are confusing communication with noise."
So how can you make sure you present information in a way that truly resonates?
"If people can easily recall, repeat, and transfer your message, you did a great job conveying it," says Duarte. "To achieve this, you should have a handful of succinct, clear, and repeatable sound bites planted in your presentation that people can effortlessly remember. A thoroughly considered sound bite can create a Something They'll Always Remember (S.T.A.R.) moment—not only for the people present in the audience but also for the ones who will encounter your presentation through broadcast or social media channels."
To help you get started creating presentations that really stick with your audiences, here are a few tips on how you can incorporate repeatable sound bites:
Create crisp messages. Picture each person you speak to as a little radio tower empowered to repeat your key concepts over and over. "Some of the most innocent-looking people have fifty thousand followers in their social networks," says Duarte. "When one sound bite is sent to their followers, it can get re-sent hundreds of thousands of times."
Craft a rally cry. Your rally cry will be a small, repeatable phrase that can become the slogan and rallying cry of the masses trying to promote your idea. President Obama's campaign slogan, "Yes We Can," originated from a speech during the primary elections.
Coordinate key phrases with the same language in your press materials. For presentations where the press is present, be sure to repeat critical messages verbatim from your press materials. "Doing so ensures that the press will pick up the right sound bites," explains Duarte. "The same is true for any camera crews who might be filming your presentation. Make sure you have at least a fifteen- to thirty-second message that is so salient it will be obvious to reporters that it should be featured in the broadcasts."
Use catchy words. Take time to carefully craft a few messages with catchy words. "For example, Neil Armstrong used the six hours and forty minutes between his moon landing and first step to craft his historic statement," says Duarte. "Phrases that have historical significance or become headlines don't just magically appear in the moment. They are mindfully planned."
Make them remember. Once you've crafted the message, there are three ways to ensure the audience remembers it: First, repeating the phrase more than once. Second, punctuating it with a pause that gives the audience time to write down exactly what you said. And finally, projecting the words on a slide so they receive the message visually as well as aurally.
Imitate a famous phrase. "Everyone knows the Golden Rule," says Duarte. "'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Well, an imitation of that famous phrase might be 'Never give a presentation you wouldn't want to sit through yourself.'"
"The future isn't just a place you'll go," says Duarte. "It's a place you will invent. Your ability to shape your future depends on how well you communicate where you want to be when you get there. When ideas are communicated effectively, people follow and change. Words that are carefully framed and spoken are the most powerful means of communication there is."
What do you think?
Today we are overwhelmed with messages. Some are just 140 characters long. Others are much longer, but they are constantly bombarding us—trying to lure us to acquire and consume information (then repeat the process over and over). Technology—social media specifically—allows for constant communication, but easy communication doesn't necessarily translate to messages that are received, understood, and capable of driving action.
At a time when people are tweeting, blogging, emailing, and more 24/7, the best way to genuinely connect and create change, says author and CEO Nancy Duarte, is via truly human, in-person presentations. She stresses that everyone in every company should know how to present and communicate that company's messages with clarity and passion.
"Great presentations are like magic," says Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design, author of the award-winning book Slide:ology, and author of the new book Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences.
"It takes a lot of work to breathe life into an idea. Spending energy to understand the audience and carefully crafting a message that resonates with them means committing time and discipline to the process. Think about it this way: You likely spend countless hours collaborating and innovating to put forth really good ideas. You should spend just as much energy ensuring they are delivered in a way that is impactful. The payoff is that learning how to present in a captivating way—be it at a formal event or to a client across the conference room table—can be your competitive edge in a business environment where too many companies are confusing communication with noise."
So how can you make sure you present information in a way that truly resonates?
"If people can easily recall, repeat, and transfer your message, you did a great job conveying it," says Duarte. "To achieve this, you should have a handful of succinct, clear, and repeatable sound bites planted in your presentation that people can effortlessly remember. A thoroughly considered sound bite can create a Something They'll Always Remember (S.T.A.R.) moment—not only for the people present in the audience but also for the ones who will encounter your presentation through broadcast or social media channels."
To help you get started creating presentations that really stick with your audiences, here are a few tips on how you can incorporate repeatable sound bites:
Create crisp messages. Picture each person you speak to as a little radio tower empowered to repeat your key concepts over and over. "Some of the most innocent-looking people have fifty thousand followers in their social networks," says Duarte. "When one sound bite is sent to their followers, it can get re-sent hundreds of thousands of times."
Craft a rally cry. Your rally cry will be a small, repeatable phrase that can become the slogan and rallying cry of the masses trying to promote your idea. President Obama's campaign slogan, "Yes We Can," originated from a speech during the primary elections.
Coordinate key phrases with the same language in your press materials. For presentations where the press is present, be sure to repeat critical messages verbatim from your press materials. "Doing so ensures that the press will pick up the right sound bites," explains Duarte. "The same is true for any camera crews who might be filming your presentation. Make sure you have at least a fifteen- to thirty-second message that is so salient it will be obvious to reporters that it should be featured in the broadcasts."
Use catchy words. Take time to carefully craft a few messages with catchy words. "For example, Neil Armstrong used the six hours and forty minutes between his moon landing and first step to craft his historic statement," says Duarte. "Phrases that have historical significance or become headlines don't just magically appear in the moment. They are mindfully planned."
Make them remember. Once you've crafted the message, there are three ways to ensure the audience remembers it: First, repeating the phrase more than once. Second, punctuating it with a pause that gives the audience time to write down exactly what you said. And finally, projecting the words on a slide so they receive the message visually as well as aurally.
Imitate a famous phrase. "Everyone knows the Golden Rule," says Duarte. "'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Well, an imitation of that famous phrase might be 'Never give a presentation you wouldn't want to sit through yourself.'"
"The future isn't just a place you'll go," says Duarte. "It's a place you will invent. Your ability to shape your future depends on how well you communicate where you want to be when you get there. When ideas are communicated effectively, people follow and change. Words that are carefully framed and spoken are the most powerful means of communication there is."
What do you think?
Book says to get ready for the next boom (really!)
Posted by Mark Brousseau
A bumper sticker popular in West Texas during the oil bust of the early 1980s went something like this, “Please God, just give me one more boom—I promise not to blow it this time.”
Today, millions of people around the world may be having similar thoughts.
In his book to be published in November, Jack W. Plunkett, a widely followed analyst of global trends, writes that massive changes in America and around the world will bring on a sustained period of economic growth. In The Next Boom, he argues that we are on the verge of developments that will boost job creation, investment and international trade over what he calls the “near future,” from 2013-2025.
“The next boom is already rolling down the tracks in the emerging world,” Plunkett says. “America will get on board shortly.”
The book is subtitled, “What you absolutely, positively have to know between now and 2025,” because Plunkett believes that managers, investors, entrepreneurs and leaders need to understand the changes that will soon occur in order to perform effectively. He presents a panorama of developments in areas including energy, healthcare, education, demographics, global trade, technologies and the rapidly-growing global middle class—showing how trends in America and around the world have tremendous synergy that will lead to a surge in business.
Plunkett, who describes himself as a “pragmatic optimist,” explains that “the coming boom will be supported by three building blocks. First, consumers in America are building savings and becoming financially prudent, while population growth is expanding markets for businesses. Next, global trade is about to enter an evolved, vastly higher level while the middle classes in emerging nations are soaring. Third, advanced technologies will boost the global economy in an unprecedented manner that will make the last technology boom seem tame.”
What do you think?
A bumper sticker popular in West Texas during the oil bust of the early 1980s went something like this, “Please God, just give me one more boom—I promise not to blow it this time.”
Today, millions of people around the world may be having similar thoughts.
In his book to be published in November, Jack W. Plunkett, a widely followed analyst of global trends, writes that massive changes in America and around the world will bring on a sustained period of economic growth. In The Next Boom, he argues that we are on the verge of developments that will boost job creation, investment and international trade over what he calls the “near future,” from 2013-2025.
“The next boom is already rolling down the tracks in the emerging world,” Plunkett says. “America will get on board shortly.”
The book is subtitled, “What you absolutely, positively have to know between now and 2025,” because Plunkett believes that managers, investors, entrepreneurs and leaders need to understand the changes that will soon occur in order to perform effectively. He presents a panorama of developments in areas including energy, healthcare, education, demographics, global trade, technologies and the rapidly-growing global middle class—showing how trends in America and around the world have tremendous synergy that will lead to a surge in business.
Plunkett, who describes himself as a “pragmatic optimist,” explains that “the coming boom will be supported by three building blocks. First, consumers in America are building savings and becoming financially prudent, while population growth is expanding markets for businesses. Next, global trade is about to enter an evolved, vastly higher level while the middle classes in emerging nations are soaring. Third, advanced technologies will boost the global economy in an unprecedented manner that will make the last technology boom seem tame.”
What do you think?
Friday, September 24, 2010
Information, Please!
Posted by Mark Brousseau
After years of discussion, plans to expand the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network to facilitate the electronic transfer of supplemental remittance information may finally gain traction.
Initiatives to use the ACH rails to transfer information associated with business-to-business payments and healthcare payments were among the hottest topics at WesPay's Payments Symposium this week at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach, California, notes Leilani Doyle (ldoyle@usdataworks.com), product manager at US Dataworks (www.usdataworks.com), a Houston-based solutions provider.
"The ACH Network has proven to be a stable and successful payments channel," Doyle explains. "But as electronic transactions continue to gain acceptance, it is clear that the ACH Network needs to be expanded to more efficiently carry remittance information, as well as payment instructions."
Doyle notes that several initiatives already are underway to allow information to be passed along with payment instructions. The most notable effort is the new International ACH Transaction (IAT) format. "It was necessary for OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] reporting that international payments include enough information with ACH transactions for proper screening. To accomplish this, addenda records were added to accommodate the required information," Doyle explains.
Now, NACHA is extending this concept to business-to-business payments, hoping to eliminate one of the largest remaining obstacles in electronifying business checks: the need to communicate remittance information. "This is not a new concept," Doyle says. "NACHA's CTX [Corporate Trade Exchange] format was a start. But the ANSI standards it relies on are too complex to be effectively used by mid-sized businesses." As an alternative, a plan is under consideration to combine standardized addenda records with XML tags that could be interpreted by both sending and receiving ACH systems. "This approach may be a real solution to the B2B ACH trade payments problem."
Another big opportunity for an expanded ACH Network lies in the healthcare space. "Imagine an ACH standard record format that allows EOB [explanation of benefits] information to be linked from within the payment," Doyle says. "Using this approach, there would be no need to send all of the EOB information around on the ACH rails. Instead, an addenda record would provide secure and specific access to EOB information in an XML format," Doyle explains, adding that this "simple and extensible" solution is designed with the healthcare market's fast-changing requirements in mind.
NACHA is hardly standing still as it puts the finishing touches on its information initiatives. The organization introduced Secure Vault, a payment system that allows consumers to pay for goods and services over the Internet, without disclosing their bank account information. "The Secure Vault payment method connects directly to a bank's online banking application where the customer enters their ID and password, and money is then transferred to the merchant using the ACH Network," Doyle says. After a lengthy pilot, Secure Vault is now "ready for primetime," Doyle says. "The Secure Vault concept is sound, but only time will tell whether the adoption rate is high enough for it to become as ubiquitous as credit card and e-check payments for Internet transactions," Doyle adds.
What do you think?
After years of discussion, plans to expand the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network to facilitate the electronic transfer of supplemental remittance information may finally gain traction.
Initiatives to use the ACH rails to transfer information associated with business-to-business payments and healthcare payments were among the hottest topics at WesPay's Payments Symposium this week at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach, California, notes Leilani Doyle (ldoyle@usdataworks.com), product manager at US Dataworks (www.usdataworks.com), a Houston-based solutions provider.
"The ACH Network has proven to be a stable and successful payments channel," Doyle explains. "But as electronic transactions continue to gain acceptance, it is clear that the ACH Network needs to be expanded to more efficiently carry remittance information, as well as payment instructions."
Doyle notes that several initiatives already are underway to allow information to be passed along with payment instructions. The most notable effort is the new International ACH Transaction (IAT) format. "It was necessary for OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] reporting that international payments include enough information with ACH transactions for proper screening. To accomplish this, addenda records were added to accommodate the required information," Doyle explains.
Now, NACHA is extending this concept to business-to-business payments, hoping to eliminate one of the largest remaining obstacles in electronifying business checks: the need to communicate remittance information. "This is not a new concept," Doyle says. "NACHA's CTX [Corporate Trade Exchange] format was a start. But the ANSI standards it relies on are too complex to be effectively used by mid-sized businesses." As an alternative, a plan is under consideration to combine standardized addenda records with XML tags that could be interpreted by both sending and receiving ACH systems. "This approach may be a real solution to the B2B ACH trade payments problem."
Another big opportunity for an expanded ACH Network lies in the healthcare space. "Imagine an ACH standard record format that allows EOB [explanation of benefits] information to be linked from within the payment," Doyle says. "Using this approach, there would be no need to send all of the EOB information around on the ACH rails. Instead, an addenda record would provide secure and specific access to EOB information in an XML format," Doyle explains, adding that this "simple and extensible" solution is designed with the healthcare market's fast-changing requirements in mind.
NACHA is hardly standing still as it puts the finishing touches on its information initiatives. The organization introduced Secure Vault, a payment system that allows consumers to pay for goods and services over the Internet, without disclosing their bank account information. "The Secure Vault payment method connects directly to a bank's online banking application where the customer enters their ID and password, and money is then transferred to the merchant using the ACH Network," Doyle says. After a lengthy pilot, Secure Vault is now "ready for primetime," Doyle says. "The Secure Vault concept is sound, but only time will tell whether the adoption rate is high enough for it to become as ubiquitous as credit card and e-check payments for Internet transactions," Doyle adds.
What do you think?
"What are you doing here?"
By Greg Lusch (glusch@ibml.com), ibml (www.ibml.com)
With all of the banks and financial services companies participating in this week's Healthcare Payments Automation Summit (HPAS) in Boston, the healthcare providers and payers in attendance could be excused for momentarily thinking that they were in the wrong place. But they weren't, and neither were their fellow attendees from banking and financial services.
When a single market represents a whopping 17 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- as healthcare does -- lots of companies will be looking for ways to cash in. Banks and financial services companies are no exception. And based on my conversations at HPAS, more providers are open to help from banks in automating healthcare payments.
For instance, there was a lot of conversation at HPAS about adapting bank lockbox services to process explanation of benefits (EOBs) and other medical documents. According to the results of a survey released by IAPP-TAWPI at the event, 34 percent of healthcare providers already use a bank lockbox for healthcare payments. Undaunted by the increased security and privacy regulations under the HITECH Act, it is clear that even more banks are pushing forward with lockbox services aimed squarely at hospital and physician practice groups. In fact, the participants on a panel at the event unanimously predicted that the percentage of providers that use a bank lockbox would climb, while a speaker in another session said he expected "slow but steady" growth for both bank and provider-based EOB solutions.
And if HPAS is any indication, banks also are making headway with remote deposit capture (RDC) solutions targeted at the healthcare space, namely, rising patient self-pay and co-insurance/co-payment obligations. According to the IAPP-TAWPI survey released at HPAS, 22 percent of providers currently use RDC. Several vendors of RDC solutions exhibited at the event (Creditron, EPSON and WAUSAU were among them), and a few providers shared case studies of their experiences with the technology as part of the conference agenda (faster funds availability was cited as a key benefit). A common refrain among healthcare providers at HPAS was that lower bank fees have greatly improved the business case for RDC, while banks have done a better job of adapting their solutions to the unique needs of providers.
The role of banks in the healthcare space also was a dominant -- and sometimes heated -- topic during the Healthcare Payments Council meeting that immediately followed HPAS.
The good news for banks looking to crack the healthcare space is that most HPAS attendees believe that while automated payment transactions (claims, remittances and payments) will continue to make gains, paper will be a fact of life in the industry for the foreseeable future.
And that is why banks were at HPAS.
With all of the banks and financial services companies participating in this week's Healthcare Payments Automation Summit (HPAS) in Boston, the healthcare providers and payers in attendance could be excused for momentarily thinking that they were in the wrong place. But they weren't, and neither were their fellow attendees from banking and financial services.
When a single market represents a whopping 17 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- as healthcare does -- lots of companies will be looking for ways to cash in. Banks and financial services companies are no exception. And based on my conversations at HPAS, more providers are open to help from banks in automating healthcare payments.
For instance, there was a lot of conversation at HPAS about adapting bank lockbox services to process explanation of benefits (EOBs) and other medical documents. According to the results of a survey released by IAPP-TAWPI at the event, 34 percent of healthcare providers already use a bank lockbox for healthcare payments. Undaunted by the increased security and privacy regulations under the HITECH Act, it is clear that even more banks are pushing forward with lockbox services aimed squarely at hospital and physician practice groups. In fact, the participants on a panel at the event unanimously predicted that the percentage of providers that use a bank lockbox would climb, while a speaker in another session said he expected "slow but steady" growth for both bank and provider-based EOB solutions.
And if HPAS is any indication, banks also are making headway with remote deposit capture (RDC) solutions targeted at the healthcare space, namely, rising patient self-pay and co-insurance/co-payment obligations. According to the IAPP-TAWPI survey released at HPAS, 22 percent of providers currently use RDC. Several vendors of RDC solutions exhibited at the event (Creditron, EPSON and WAUSAU were among them), and a few providers shared case studies of their experiences with the technology as part of the conference agenda (faster funds availability was cited as a key benefit). A common refrain among healthcare providers at HPAS was that lower bank fees have greatly improved the business case for RDC, while banks have done a better job of adapting their solutions to the unique needs of providers.
The role of banks in the healthcare space also was a dominant -- and sometimes heated -- topic during the Healthcare Payments Council meeting that immediately followed HPAS.
The good news for banks looking to crack the healthcare space is that most HPAS attendees believe that while automated payment transactions (claims, remittances and payments) will continue to make gains, paper will be a fact of life in the industry for the foreseeable future.
And that is why banks were at HPAS.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
4 Reasons Government Entities may adopt Integrated Payments Hubs
Posted by Mark Brousseau
If you think your operations budgets are tight, try managing payments processing for a government entity. Badly stung by declining tax revenues, most state, county and municipal governments have squeezed their operations budgets dry. And it couldn't have come at a worse time for government operations managers: like their counterparts in the private sector, governments are struggling with how best to adapt their operations to declining check volumes and emerging payments channels.
Leilani Doyle (ldoyle@usdataworks.com), product manager at Houston-based US Dataworks (www.usdataworks.com), believes government entities may find a solution in so-called enterprise payments hubs (or integrated payments hubs), which consolidate paper-based and electronic payments into a single platform, in turn, streamlining processing and eliminating operations silos.
About one-quarter (22.2 percent) of all government entities that responded to a recent IAPP-TAWPI survey indicated that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub to consolidate paper and electronic payments. The responses from state revenue agencies nearly mirror the overall findings for this question, with 21.4 percent indicating that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub. Non-revenue state agencies and county government entities have made a little more progress in this area, with 33 percent of (non-revenue) state agencies indicating that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub, and 40 percent of county government entities (by far the highest adoption rate among the groups tracked) stating that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub.
Doyle says 4 factors could drive faster growth of enterprise payments hubs among governments:
1. Declining paper volumes. As government agencies achieve success with electronic payments, their existing paper-centric infrastructure becomes obsolete. "Paper will not go away any time soon, but there's no need to maintain equipment and applications designed to manage large volumes of paper payments," Doyle explains. "Moving forward, government entities will need an integrated payments platform that can scale up or down as needed. This type of payments processing platform operates like a utility that can be easily adjusted to changing payment types and volumes."
2. Focus on serving constituents. Implementing an integrated payments hub enables government entities to provide better service to their constituents, Doyle explains. Research can be performed from a single location. Posting is more accurate. And check images can be retrieved instantly.
3. Push to reduce bank fees and operations costs. With an integrated payments hub, government entities can consolidate their bank deposit files, putting them in a stronger position for negotiating bank fees. Inside government operations, an integrated payments hub helps government entities increase overall staff productivity by not requiring them to learn different applications for processing each payment type. Similarly, reports for staffing and efficiency can be produced from a single system, streamlining the generation of Key Performance Indicators each agency must produce.
4. Lower capital expenditures and ongoing costs. With the emergence of enterprise payments solutions that offer a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or hosted delivery model, government agencies can replace their aging systems with little to no upfront cost. This is a creative way to allow agencies without the budgeted dollars to replace antiquated legacy systems, Doyle says. "SaaS services also provide an added layer of security and compliance protection, starting with PCI compliance and SAS-70. This can significantly reduce risks and audit costs for government agencies." What’s more, leveraging a SaaS or hosted delivery model means government entities can offload the management of their IT infrastructure. This not only saves money, but also allows government entities to better focus on their core competency -- serving taxpayers. And this may be the biggest benefit of all.
It's for these reasons that Doyle thinks government entities may adopt integrated payments hubs.
What do you think?
If you think your operations budgets are tight, try managing payments processing for a government entity. Badly stung by declining tax revenues, most state, county and municipal governments have squeezed their operations budgets dry. And it couldn't have come at a worse time for government operations managers: like their counterparts in the private sector, governments are struggling with how best to adapt their operations to declining check volumes and emerging payments channels.
Leilani Doyle (ldoyle@usdataworks.com), product manager at Houston-based US Dataworks (www.usdataworks.com), believes government entities may find a solution in so-called enterprise payments hubs (or integrated payments hubs), which consolidate paper-based and electronic payments into a single platform, in turn, streamlining processing and eliminating operations silos.
About one-quarter (22.2 percent) of all government entities that responded to a recent IAPP-TAWPI survey indicated that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub to consolidate paper and electronic payments. The responses from state revenue agencies nearly mirror the overall findings for this question, with 21.4 percent indicating that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub. Non-revenue state agencies and county government entities have made a little more progress in this area, with 33 percent of (non-revenue) state agencies indicating that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub, and 40 percent of county government entities (by far the highest adoption rate among the groups tracked) stating that they have implemented an enterprise payments hub.
Doyle says 4 factors could drive faster growth of enterprise payments hubs among governments:
1. Declining paper volumes. As government agencies achieve success with electronic payments, their existing paper-centric infrastructure becomes obsolete. "Paper will not go away any time soon, but there's no need to maintain equipment and applications designed to manage large volumes of paper payments," Doyle explains. "Moving forward, government entities will need an integrated payments platform that can scale up or down as needed. This type of payments processing platform operates like a utility that can be easily adjusted to changing payment types and volumes."
2. Focus on serving constituents. Implementing an integrated payments hub enables government entities to provide better service to their constituents, Doyle explains. Research can be performed from a single location. Posting is more accurate. And check images can be retrieved instantly.
3. Push to reduce bank fees and operations costs. With an integrated payments hub, government entities can consolidate their bank deposit files, putting them in a stronger position for negotiating bank fees. Inside government operations, an integrated payments hub helps government entities increase overall staff productivity by not requiring them to learn different applications for processing each payment type. Similarly, reports for staffing and efficiency can be produced from a single system, streamlining the generation of Key Performance Indicators each agency must produce.
4. Lower capital expenditures and ongoing costs. With the emergence of enterprise payments solutions that offer a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or hosted delivery model, government agencies can replace their aging systems with little to no upfront cost. This is a creative way to allow agencies without the budgeted dollars to replace antiquated legacy systems, Doyle says. "SaaS services also provide an added layer of security and compliance protection, starting with PCI compliance and SAS-70. This can significantly reduce risks and audit costs for government agencies." What’s more, leveraging a SaaS or hosted delivery model means government entities can offload the management of their IT infrastructure. This not only saves money, but also allows government entities to better focus on their core competency -- serving taxpayers. And this may be the biggest benefit of all.
It's for these reasons that Doyle thinks government entities may adopt integrated payments hubs.
What do you think?
Saturday, September 4, 2010
(Fr)agile Software Development
By Vijay Balakrishnan, president of StratEx, LLC (vijay.balakrishnan90@gmail.com)
Much of our world is made possible by software. There are myriad software systems that manage and move our money, keep track of our health histories, light our homes and offices, and indeed even enable you to read this post. While the sheer scale of accomplishment from zeros and ones flitting about at the speed of light is astounding, the manner in which some of these systems are developed, tested, and delivered raises a few questions.
Over the falls in a barrel. The early years of evolution in software development owed much to needs of the defense and aerospace industries. These were highly mission-critical systems that had to work correctly almost ten times out of ten. A linear process that involved detailed specifications, technical designs, strict coding discipline, reviews, and rigorous testing ensured the delivery of many high performance systems.
A version of this made its way into the commercial marketplace under the broad "waterfall process" moniker. The series of hand-offs, from product management, to architecture, design, development and testing, with intermediate review cycles, hearkened a series of waterfalls as in a cataract. While the process worked well for the most part, it lacked speed. The many steps limited organizations to one or two releases to the marketplace a year. It was difficult to nimbly respond to competitive and regulatory changes. If changes were not included early enough in the cycle, it was tantamount to missing an exit on a tollway, and waiting for the next one.
Sprints around the racetrack. In the 1970's, the automotive industry introduced the concept of "simultaneous engineering", where design engineers, manufacturing engineers, and quality control worked together in teams. As opposed to the linear, "throw it over the transom" model, this engendered both speed and sharing of ideas. That germ of an idea made its way into software as Agile Development. While there are many agile methodologies, the general concept is that specifiers, programmers, and testers work together in short, iterative, "sprints" to produce executable software. Over multiple sprints, complete, ready-to-release applications can be built.
Lost in translation. While agile development has made it possible to release software more frequently, a few challenges have appeared on the way to nirvana. To the agile purists, I will grant that many of these have to do with incorrect interpretation and implementation, and perhaps not because of fundamental drawbacks in the methodologies. The challenges are amplified when you add offshore development where the advantage of co-located teams disappears. They are also most acute when software is developed for General Availability to a large and varied customer base, as opposed to internal use within an enterprise. Here are some of the pitfalls I have observed over the years:
What we have here is a failure to communicate. With apologies to "Cool Hand Luke", one of the main complaints I have seen is, "We don't know what is coming, and when!" We have moved from exhaustive, written requirements to writing nothing down. The refrain is that the sprint teams communicate with each other, and are on top of release content. Some will add that everything can be discerned from documentation within the code. The problem is that there are many stakeholders outside the sprint team, such as sales, marketing, professional services, and support. These people are not adept at reading code, and think in terms of functions and applications, as opposed to individual features. The result often is that market facing groups either oversell or undersell the product (more often the former!).
Who's on first? While sprint teams are cohesive and democratic, the flip side is that it can result in no one at the helm. While the methodologies call for a "function customer" who signs off on software content and quality, this role is often missing in action. Either the role is completely absent, or it is relegated to a Product Manager who is more of a Product Marketer than someone who can go head-to-head with a technician. In the absence of this key role, many cooks jump in to influence the software broth in one direction or the other, resulting in content churn. The process is agile yes, but highly unstable.
Tried and tested. Agile methodologies like test driven development put testing and quality at the center of the process. In practice, however, quality often ends up getting the short end of the stick. The very expectation of agility can compress timelines due to unrealistic promises made to customers. In the rush to "get it out of the door", thorough testing is skipped, and some vendors essentially do their quality assurance on the customer's dime, by continuously band-aiding software at the customer site until it works. In extreme cases, this becomes a license to hack with little regard to version control, belying the very concept of "General Availability". While poor quality is not limited to agile methods, the less rigid process restrictions can exacerbate the tendency in organizations that already have a culture of treating quality lightly.
Customs and traditions. In organizations that cater to customers of varied sizes, the concept of General Availability can be turned on its head. There is often the case of a large customer that wants software customized to meet a unique need. There are very few vendors that have the discipline to examine whether that particular capability warrants inclusion in the software delivered to the general marketplace. The path of least resistance is to include it as a base capability that is "configurable". Over time, the preponderance of configurable customizations makes the software incredibly difficult to implement and support. Again, the lack of a process to adjudicate the "base versus custom" question can result in a multi-headed Hydra, with hidden heads that can appear to bite you when you least expect it.
Distant shores. Every one of the problems discussed explode in complexity when offshore development is involved. The communication challenge now includes time zones, national cultures, and language. The concept of sprint teams working in iterations is predicated on the concept of co-located personnel who can discuss, white-board, and resolve questions face-to-face. Getting this done with people somewhere else on the planet is very difficult, and contributes to hidden costs in offshore development that can obliterate the wage differential in the early stages of the offshore journey. The challenge can be overcome, but it takes special focus and attention to drive out the inefficiencies.
Brave new world. The benefits of agile development have ensured that it is here to stay in most environments. The word to the wise is that getting it to work right involves recognizing the pitfalls, and addressing them involving the right stakeholders. I would not be surprised if many of you recognized your organizations in some of the challenges I have outlined. It is important to recognize that getting software development to work is not just the purview of the programmers alone. Someone said, "War is too important to be left to the generals". If you'll allow the stretch, let me end by saying, "Software is too important to be left to programmers, and methodologies."
What do you think?
Much of our world is made possible by software. There are myriad software systems that manage and move our money, keep track of our health histories, light our homes and offices, and indeed even enable you to read this post. While the sheer scale of accomplishment from zeros and ones flitting about at the speed of light is astounding, the manner in which some of these systems are developed, tested, and delivered raises a few questions.
Over the falls in a barrel. The early years of evolution in software development owed much to needs of the defense and aerospace industries. These were highly mission-critical systems that had to work correctly almost ten times out of ten. A linear process that involved detailed specifications, technical designs, strict coding discipline, reviews, and rigorous testing ensured the delivery of many high performance systems.
A version of this made its way into the commercial marketplace under the broad "waterfall process" moniker. The series of hand-offs, from product management, to architecture, design, development and testing, with intermediate review cycles, hearkened a series of waterfalls as in a cataract. While the process worked well for the most part, it lacked speed. The many steps limited organizations to one or two releases to the marketplace a year. It was difficult to nimbly respond to competitive and regulatory changes. If changes were not included early enough in the cycle, it was tantamount to missing an exit on a tollway, and waiting for the next one.
Sprints around the racetrack. In the 1970's, the automotive industry introduced the concept of "simultaneous engineering", where design engineers, manufacturing engineers, and quality control worked together in teams. As opposed to the linear, "throw it over the transom" model, this engendered both speed and sharing of ideas. That germ of an idea made its way into software as Agile Development. While there are many agile methodologies, the general concept is that specifiers, programmers, and testers work together in short, iterative, "sprints" to produce executable software. Over multiple sprints, complete, ready-to-release applications can be built.
Lost in translation. While agile development has made it possible to release software more frequently, a few challenges have appeared on the way to nirvana. To the agile purists, I will grant that many of these have to do with incorrect interpretation and implementation, and perhaps not because of fundamental drawbacks in the methodologies. The challenges are amplified when you add offshore development where the advantage of co-located teams disappears. They are also most acute when software is developed for General Availability to a large and varied customer base, as opposed to internal use within an enterprise. Here are some of the pitfalls I have observed over the years:
What we have here is a failure to communicate. With apologies to "Cool Hand Luke", one of the main complaints I have seen is, "We don't know what is coming, and when!" We have moved from exhaustive, written requirements to writing nothing down. The refrain is that the sprint teams communicate with each other, and are on top of release content. Some will add that everything can be discerned from documentation within the code. The problem is that there are many stakeholders outside the sprint team, such as sales, marketing, professional services, and support. These people are not adept at reading code, and think in terms of functions and applications, as opposed to individual features. The result often is that market facing groups either oversell or undersell the product (more often the former!).
Who's on first? While sprint teams are cohesive and democratic, the flip side is that it can result in no one at the helm. While the methodologies call for a "function customer" who signs off on software content and quality, this role is often missing in action. Either the role is completely absent, or it is relegated to a Product Manager who is more of a Product Marketer than someone who can go head-to-head with a technician. In the absence of this key role, many cooks jump in to influence the software broth in one direction or the other, resulting in content churn. The process is agile yes, but highly unstable.
Tried and tested. Agile methodologies like test driven development put testing and quality at the center of the process. In practice, however, quality often ends up getting the short end of the stick. The very expectation of agility can compress timelines due to unrealistic promises made to customers. In the rush to "get it out of the door", thorough testing is skipped, and some vendors essentially do their quality assurance on the customer's dime, by continuously band-aiding software at the customer site until it works. In extreme cases, this becomes a license to hack with little regard to version control, belying the very concept of "General Availability". While poor quality is not limited to agile methods, the less rigid process restrictions can exacerbate the tendency in organizations that already have a culture of treating quality lightly.
Customs and traditions. In organizations that cater to customers of varied sizes, the concept of General Availability can be turned on its head. There is often the case of a large customer that wants software customized to meet a unique need. There are very few vendors that have the discipline to examine whether that particular capability warrants inclusion in the software delivered to the general marketplace. The path of least resistance is to include it as a base capability that is "configurable". Over time, the preponderance of configurable customizations makes the software incredibly difficult to implement and support. Again, the lack of a process to adjudicate the "base versus custom" question can result in a multi-headed Hydra, with hidden heads that can appear to bite you when you least expect it.
Distant shores. Every one of the problems discussed explode in complexity when offshore development is involved. The communication challenge now includes time zones, national cultures, and language. The concept of sprint teams working in iterations is predicated on the concept of co-located personnel who can discuss, white-board, and resolve questions face-to-face. Getting this done with people somewhere else on the planet is very difficult, and contributes to hidden costs in offshore development that can obliterate the wage differential in the early stages of the offshore journey. The challenge can be overcome, but it takes special focus and attention to drive out the inefficiencies.
Brave new world. The benefits of agile development have ensured that it is here to stay in most environments. The word to the wise is that getting it to work right involves recognizing the pitfalls, and addressing them involving the right stakeholders. I would not be surprised if many of you recognized your organizations in some of the challenges I have outlined. It is important to recognize that getting software development to work is not just the purview of the programmers alone. Someone said, "War is too important to be left to the generals". If you'll allow the stretch, let me end by saying, "Software is too important to be left to programmers, and methodologies."
What do you think?
Monday, August 30, 2010
6 Questions to Ask When Shopping for a Remittance Solution
By Mark Brousseau
Buying a remittance processing solution has never been easy. But the combination of emerging payment and clearing channels, expanding systems integration requirements, and new customer service demands has made the process more confusing than ever.
To add some clarity, Wally Vogel (wvogel@creditron.com), founder and CEO of Creditron, Inc. (www.creditron) offers the following six questions to ask a prospective remittance solutions vendors.
1. How much opening and pre-sorting is required before scanning incoming remittance work?
Bearing in mind that there are often several steps required to move from unopened mail to stacks of clean sorted documents, which some remittance solutions require, Vogel suggests looking at the remittance solution in the context of the end-to-end operation. "Look for a vendor that can integrate with an efficient mail opening system and handle a variety of transaction type without requiring pre-sorting," Vogel advises.
2. What about payments that are made in person or over the web?
The mix of payments has changed and will continue to change, and spending money on a solution that only handles mail payments no longer makes sense, Vogel says. "A remittance platform worth investing in should have fully integrated cashiering, web payments, and credit card payments, with consolidated deposits, accounting updates, and reports," Vogel says.
3. Have you successfully interfaced with our ERP/accounting system/billing system/content management software before?
This is an area of potential hidden costs and problems if not addressed upfront, Vogel warns. "You have a significant investment in your information systems, and front end capture points such as remittance processing need to work seamlessly or the result will be unexpected integration work by your IS group, or worse, unforeseen problems with your data down the road," Vogel says.
4. Have you successfully implemented Check 21 Image Cash Letter with our bank before?
This is another potential problem if your remittance vendor and bank are not on the same page, Vogel says. "Don’t get caught in between. Use a vendor that has already proven that they can work with your bank, or if your bank does not have a process and certification in place for working with third party vendors consider using another bank for image cash letter services and having the funds swept to your main bank on a daily basis," Vogel recommends.
5. Is this a fully proven and tested solution or will there be any customized code?
Unless you want to be a beta tester, you should choose a vendor that has completely standardized and proven code that can be configured to your needs through parameters. "Even a small block of customized code can cause problems with reliability or integrity, and make later updates problematic and expensive," Vogel explains. "Choose a vendor with a standard codebase and an easy method to upgrade to the latest revision."
6. Are you a Microsoft Certified partner?
"If you are putting wiring in your house, you insist on a licensed electrician. If you want legal advice, you look for a lawyer that has passed the bar. Similarly, if you are choosing a remittance software provider to work in the Microsoft Windows environment, you should insist in a Microsoft Certified Partner," Vogel says. "This ensures that you are dealing with a professional and qualified organization which has made the investment in certifying their people and products before asking you to make an investment in their solutions."
Do you have any tips you can share?
Buying a remittance processing solution has never been easy. But the combination of emerging payment and clearing channels, expanding systems integration requirements, and new customer service demands has made the process more confusing than ever.
To add some clarity, Wally Vogel (wvogel@creditron.com), founder and CEO of Creditron, Inc. (www.creditron) offers the following six questions to ask a prospective remittance solutions vendors.
1. How much opening and pre-sorting is required before scanning incoming remittance work?
Bearing in mind that there are often several steps required to move from unopened mail to stacks of clean sorted documents, which some remittance solutions require, Vogel suggests looking at the remittance solution in the context of the end-to-end operation. "Look for a vendor that can integrate with an efficient mail opening system and handle a variety of transaction type without requiring pre-sorting," Vogel advises.
2. What about payments that are made in person or over the web?
The mix of payments has changed and will continue to change, and spending money on a solution that only handles mail payments no longer makes sense, Vogel says. "A remittance platform worth investing in should have fully integrated cashiering, web payments, and credit card payments, with consolidated deposits, accounting updates, and reports," Vogel says.
3. Have you successfully interfaced with our ERP/accounting system/billing system/content management software before?
This is an area of potential hidden costs and problems if not addressed upfront, Vogel warns. "You have a significant investment in your information systems, and front end capture points such as remittance processing need to work seamlessly or the result will be unexpected integration work by your IS group, or worse, unforeseen problems with your data down the road," Vogel says.
4. Have you successfully implemented Check 21 Image Cash Letter with our bank before?
This is another potential problem if your remittance vendor and bank are not on the same page, Vogel says. "Don’t get caught in between. Use a vendor that has already proven that they can work with your bank, or if your bank does not have a process and certification in place for working with third party vendors consider using another bank for image cash letter services and having the funds swept to your main bank on a daily basis," Vogel recommends.
5. Is this a fully proven and tested solution or will there be any customized code?
Unless you want to be a beta tester, you should choose a vendor that has completely standardized and proven code that can be configured to your needs through parameters. "Even a small block of customized code can cause problems with reliability or integrity, and make later updates problematic and expensive," Vogel explains. "Choose a vendor with a standard codebase and an easy method to upgrade to the latest revision."
6. Are you a Microsoft Certified partner?
"If you are putting wiring in your house, you insist on a licensed electrician. If you want legal advice, you look for a lawyer that has passed the bar. Similarly, if you are choosing a remittance software provider to work in the Microsoft Windows environment, you should insist in a Microsoft Certified Partner," Vogel says. "This ensures that you are dealing with a professional and qualified organization which has made the investment in certifying their people and products before asking you to make an investment in their solutions."
Do you have any tips you can share?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
