9 steps to building a better biz tech’ workflow

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Technology marches on. The rate of technological progress increases all of the time. How we react to this change varies from the hopeful to the outright hostile. But what if there’s a new technology that could improve your workflow?

To those like me, technological change is both inevitable and usually for the better. For some, the changing face of technology is a barrier.

Are barriers to new technology all in the mind?

So can we say that mindset is a barrier to the uptake of new technology? This was the question put to me recently, where my reply was published as a centre spread in the event organizer publication.

The common perception (and by extension, a common misconception) is that technology is something new. No, technology is as old as the first stone wielded to crack a nut:

“You see, the perception is that technology is new stuff, like computers, energy-efficient light bulbs, high-speed trains, space flight, nanotechnology, genetics, crazily tall buildings and stupidly long bridges.

When in actual fact, technology is glazed drinking mugs, the three field system, mass-produced cloths, glass windows, zip fasteners, the bow & arrow, central heating and the printed word.”

And the events industry is by no means an exception to such mental barriers, as I noted in the featured article:

“It’s not that people resist change for no reason, it’s that the resistance comes as a result of there not being compelling enough reasons to do things differently.”

There’s several ways of looking at this issue:

  • having looked at the technologies available, only to discover few if any are an appropriate fit, or replacement of those currently being used;
  • not having looked at the available technologies in enough detail, to determine their benefits;
  • fear of technology and change itself.

It’s easy to say people are lazy or ignorant, but it’s not nearly that simple. Once you’ve got yourself a workflow, it’s a brave person who risks the productivity of their business to find new and better ways of doing things.

New technology ideas. Same old business problems

This becomes even more of a concern if you’re a business with employees. The potential for short-term disruption might be more expensive than the gained benefits over the same period. This is always a challenge, for any business.

Scale that up for multinationals businesses, like a leading client of mine who’re in the process of moving over to Microsoft SharePoint, and the training costs alone would make you wince, not to mention actual implementation, technical support, or the cost of the software itself.

Having seen how I’d recently re-built my entire workflow around Marketcircle’s Daylite CRM package for the Mac, a client of mine, PR and communications professional Emily Cagle decided to buy an iMac and download a trial version of Daylite. This is fine if there’s only the one of you, as is the case with my client and myself.

There are those brave souls who abandon paper and pens and even the comfy confines of Microsoft Excel. A couple of years ago, I developed a web application for Premier UK, an events management specialist based in the West Midlands. This was a complete departure for them, and an exceptionally brave and bold move, too. Obviously not for everyone.

But if you’re a bigger company, what’s the solution?

Building a better workflow

Whenever I offer advice, I do so from my own point of view; what would I do if I were in their situation? If you’re keen to try out a new technology in your business, it’s essential the process be as real as possible, while minimizing the chances of their being major problems along the way:

  1. make sure that whatever new technologies you choose will link into and integrate with your business in the same or a similar way to the ones they’re replacing;
  2. whether it’s software or hardware, do some research and find out what other people think;
  3. if it’s a software-based solution, see if there’s a trial version available;
  4. identify a low priority / low cost project that doesn’t have a strict deadline;
  5. to make the experience as real as possible, engage with the customer / client and get them on your side, maybe with a financial incentive for them to be a Guinea pig;
  6. make sure you have access to all of the support staff / resources you’re going to need when things go wrong, because there’s a very good chance they will;
  7. document your every action, so you or anyone else can re-trace your steps;
  8. be sure to involve at least one other member of your team, to ensure the knowledge you’re acquiring isn’t all in one place;
  9. compartmentalize each process and measure the amount of time taken, then compare to your present workflow.

Of course, each business is different, so it’s as well that you write down your existing process first, making sure your leap of faith isn’t going to result in the loss of some key aspect of your workflow.

We all want to make more money. Ideally, we want to make more money while making less effort. By building a workflow based around more efficient technologies, you’re heading in the right direction.

The pros and cons of staying secure and blocking spam with a contact form

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So you’ve got a website! Now what? If you want to connect with your visitors, you’re going to need a contact form. But what are the security advantages and disadvantages associated with a contact form?

I’m sure you, like me, have had your fair share of spam email; people trying to sell you everything from prescription drugs to watches. Worse still, some of these offers will probably be coming through your companies contact form, which is both annoying and a time waster.

Securing response forms with a CAPTCHA

OK, I confess, this is a buzzword. After everything I said about buzzwords and jargon being a pain, I go and do this! But, there’s a a very good reason.

There is a way of preventing a good percentage of the unsolicited email you receive, and it’s a security feature you can add to your contact forms. It’s called CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Human Apart. If you go to the contact page of the Octane website, you’ll see one in action.

Manually submitting contact forms

However, CAPTCHAs aren’t a silver bullet, or some kind of cure-all. Because of the various tools I use, I can see where people come from before they send me a message via my contact form.

The vast majority of the spam I get is from India. So rather than this being some automated system trying and failing to complete my response form and navigate its way around the CAPTCHA, it’s a real person at the other end. That’s a problem you can’t solve with software alone.

However, some feel having a CAPTCHA on your response forms might be doing more harm than good. As an example, a recent body of research shows that CAPTCHAs have a measurable effect on conversion rates:

“From the data you can see that with CAPTCHA on, there was an 88% reduction in SPAM but there were 159 failed conversions. Those failed conversions could be SPAM, but they could also be people who couldn’t figure out the CAPTCHA and finally just gave up. With CAPTCHA’s on, SPAM and failed conversions accounted for 7.3% of all the conversions for the 3 month period. With CAPTCHA’s off, SPAM conversions accounted for 4.1% of all the conversions for the 3 month period. That possibly means when CAPTCHA’s are on, the company could lose out on 3.2% of all their conversions!”

Those figures do certainly offer pause for thought. But it’s also worth mentioning this is a relatively small study group, and I have a feeling that the type of visitor could play a major part in conversion and abandon rates.

Respondr response form script

Because I got sick of relying on other people, I wrote my own response form script, called Respondr, which you’ll find being used here on Octane, as well as on the Blah, Blah! Technology blog, and several clients of mine.

Rospondr is free to download, and if you’re a web developer, it should be easy enough for you to install and configure. Rospondr also includes a built-in CAPTCHA, which can also be configured.

In the time I’ve been using CAPTCHAs, I’ve seen several people get stuck with them, but very few have abandoned them. My feeling is, people know why they’re being asked to enter a security code, because they’re just as sick of unsolicited mail as I am.

But if you are concerned about people abandoning your contact form, make sure your telephone number is near by, so they can call you direct.

Masked passwords versus usability

I’ve always disliked masked passwords. What’s a masked password? It’s any text field on a contact form that turns all of the characters you’re typing into bullet points. Let’s face it, if you can’t see what you’re typing, how can you be at all sure you’ve typed the right thing?

Recently, usability expert Jakob Nielsen weighed in on the subject of masked passwords:

“The more uncertain users feel about typing passwords, the more likely they are to (a) employ overly simple passwords and/or (b) copy-paste passwords from a file on their computer. Both behaviors lead to a true loss of security.”

This is a problem for both new and seasoned web users alike. As a web developer, I don’t use masked password form fields. If a client asked for them, I explain why they’re such a bad idea, who’s positives are massively out-weighed by the negatives.

If you’re worried about people looking over your shoulder, that’s a people thing and not something software can get around. At the very least, if web developers are going to use masked passwords in their response forms, they should include a little check box which enables and disables it, to give the user the option.

Conclusion

Ultimately, if you choose to use CAPTCHAs or masked passwords on your company website, it’s about balance; are you doing the right thing by your customers / clients visiting your website?

And knowing your audience is essential, which is why I highly recommend you track the visitors to your website, to help widen that knowledge.

Of projects, payment and planning

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In business, it’s often the basics that we get snagged up on. I’m a web designer first and foremost and a businessman second. But it’s the criticality of your business that can usurp your day-to-day plans, throwing your future into doubt. A good example would be billing clients — but it needn’t be that way.

A while ago, I had to write out a set of terms & conditions. In all the years I’d been in business (Octane celebrated it’s tenth birthday in June), I’d not given serious thought to such things, largely because there’d never been a real need. But one particular client project changed all of that.

Even though the final stage of the project had been demonstrably complete, the client insisted on additional unscheduled activities being complete first before the final invoice being issued.

When the final invoice was issued, they were shocked by the cost. But why? Because these additional activities weren’t planned for, within the scope of the project, I was essentially supplying estimates on a daily basis. So over time, the client had lost track of the amount of work they had requested.

What we had was a classic case of “mission creep“, where a project has expanded beyond its original goals, often after initial successes.

I’d always been mindful to invoice as often as a project would allow, for two reasons:

  1. to mitigate cash flow problems, and;
  2. to fend off the damage delayed or none payment can cause.

Mitigating the cost of “mission creep”

Well, this one client project made me think again about this policy. As a rule, I have invoice breakpoints, which can be better explained by quoting straight from my terms & conditions:

“Our standard practice is to divide projects into separate stages, with each stage being billable. However, stages may be billed prior to an agreed milestone if the cost of the stage exceeds £2,000.00 or a cost breakpoint previously agreed between the client and Octane Interactive Limited is met.”

This way, we limit the prospect of any one stage within a project running on further than it should. And because we agree these terms & conditions up front, me using this condition as a fall back later within the project shouldn’t come as an unwelcome surprise to the client.

The other advantage to billing often is that you give your client a clear insight into just how much each stage of a project costs, and how much of a commitment of work that stage of the project is / was.

By encouraging your client to pay in stages, they’re making a major financial commitment, which then helps them to work towards completing a project with you, rather than just abandoning it and walking away, owing thousands, thinking that they have no financial liability.

Once a client is happy that the progress you’ve made is consistent with the agreed stage, they’re endorsing your progress with a financial seal of approval.

Because of what I do, it’s often very easy to demonstrate to a client the progress being made. I can often grant them access to any given website or web application during the various stages of its development.

In fact, I often encourage clients to begin using a website or web application (even if only for internal purposes), to trigger feedback, and for them to become comfortable with their project.

I’m sure you can find similar examples within your own work process.

In this current economic climate, it’s imperative that we all work together and not apart. For my part, I’m actively working on innovative web applications than can help my clients save money during the recession.

Hopefully, this advice may help you start a new conversation with your clients that could help stave off financial problems in the future…

All of a Twitter over social media

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Does social media represent a genuine opportunity for small businesses — or are we in danger of falling victim to yet more hype?

Wayne Smallman, FSB member, founder of web design and development consultancy Octane Interactive and author of The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media, says:

Be careful about being too candid, entering into heated and bad-tempered debates and arguments, or making disparaging, negative and very public comments about clients, as well as other people. Unless you’re absolutely certain of the people in your social network, apply the ‘mother rule’ – would my mother be offended if she read this?

Just what is a standard website anyway?

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“So how do you charge for a standard website?” is a very common question, one which has no simple answer. Why? Because I’ve never developed two websites that are the same.

There’s no doubting the similarity of some, in terms of the number of web pages, or the type of pages, but because my involvement in any given project can vary, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to what I do.

Sometimes, I’m required to provide the design and artwork, whereas other times, that part of the project might have been done by another design agency.

Sometimes the copy (text) and the photography is supplied, whereas other times I’m required to assist in the copywriting and sourcing the photography.

There are parallels with the print world; no two brochures are the same. How many pages? What stock of paper? How many colours? Any special colours? Is the copy supplied? Is the photography supplied? How many prints do you want? The list goes on.

There are those that offer a one-size-fits-all approach. I don’t. Every company is different and thusly, their needs are different. The upshot is that I’m more expensive than some of my rivals. But it also means my clients get a better quality service, specific to their needs, not my own, or for the benefit of my own convenience.

Once we move away from corporate websites and into more specialized services, like websites that the client can manage themselves, such as a Content Management System (often referred to a CMS), or a web application, then things become even more specific.

But what does this mean for you and your business? Simple! Everything is taken into consideration and together we build a strategy that’s exactly the right fit for your business.