Facing the Future: My Crystal Ball

As the calendar flips to 2010, there will still be headlines of more bankruptcies
and foreclosures, and stories of those whose jobs were lost as their 20th century
version of a buggy building company lost its relevancy. Continuing to stay above
the doom and gloom are those nimble entrepreneurs and business leaders agile
enough to adapt. What they learned in 2009 has opened their eyes and brought
into focus the changes they must make in order to keep their relevancy in the
marketplace. Although my crystal ball is hazy, let’s look at a few areas
I predict will impact these agile leaders for 2010:

REMOTE CONNECTION

As gas prices rise and the reasons to always be “at the office”
decline, the trend toward working remotely from home will increase.

Lesson learned from 2009: Some employees actually are more efficient when
they work from home, away from distractions. Businesses, seeking more experienced
employees to reduce the enormous cost of ramping up, will be more open to
“remote” team members if they are the right fit. Some companies
will get by fine with less office space, others will build more efficiency
into the space they have to address changes in use. Either way, there are
potential savings in both rental costs and cost per employee.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

It’s back! Although it should never be out of style, once again we
see a focus on paying more attention to your clients as a sound business practice.

eck, even our local cable company is now calling after service tech visits
to ask if everything got fixed correctly. The cable company! I’m one
of millions. Who would have thought it?

The nimble will focus on tools like SharePoint and CRM that make it easier
for them to deliver at a higher level to their clients.

Lesson learned from 2009: Customer satisfaction is not sufficient; customer
loyalty is the goal. If all you have is an e-mail relationship, be careful.
It can vanish into thin air. The nimble will create an environment where clients
want to do business with them. They will also return to the personal touch
with their clients. The technology makes it too easy to communicate electronically;
it is time to make it personal and only use technology to support relationships
and not be them.

VALUE

Forget “Show Me The Features.” Now the demand is “Show
Me The Value,” and there will be no investments if the value is not
easy to see.

Lesson learned from 2009: Sometimes the value is not so clear. The nimble
will have to work harder to be sure they can demonstrate value, and when they
can showcase that value then the prospects will become clients. And when they
maintain the delivery of that value, the clients will stay engaged. Companies
will also look at themselves in the mirror and evaluate more carefully the
value each employee brings to the enterprise.

Workers skilled at “critical thinking” — including the
ability to make better decisions because they see the issue from a broader
perspective — will emerge as the leaders. The agile will continue to
consider new ideas without being tied too firmly with the “way we have
always done it.”

The good news for the nimble (and everyone trying to be) is that there are
wonderful tools and technologies that can help. Here’s a sampling of
those that will likely get the most attention:

• Dashboards for more easily accessible metrics about the business.
  We have less time to make decisions and are in need of current information
  at a moment’s notice. Many of today’s tools, from Excel to Crystal
  Xcelsius to many of today’s accounting software, include some dashboard
  capability.
• Collaboration tools that prevent duplication of work and protection
  of documents. More on SharePoint in a minute.
• Business Intelligence Tools, like the Excel-based tools from
  BizNet Software and Global Software. Watch for a higher adoption
  rate because they address the hunger for slicing and dicing data in Excel
  and can provide a more comprehensive look at information for analysis in
  non GL areas.
• The Niche — Businesses find they can be more effective
  in areas where they have greater depth, so they will continue to refine
  how they can better serve their specialty niches. The nimble will focus
  on what they do best and where their high level of competency commands a
  premium. Today’s pioneering companies who specialize in data migration
  or building dashboards, for example, have an edge because they can deliver
  what others consider too complicated, or at a cost substantially less than
  what you’d expect for “customization” work.
• Using more tools — Companies looking to get the
  full benefit of their ERP business management system will adopt more of
  the technology-based tools that are part of their systems, such as Positive
  Pay, Electronic Banking, Cash Management and Business Alerts.
• Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) tools, like Vineyardsoft’s
  KnowledgeSync, will be adopted to a greater degree by businesses that see
  that the “alert” is nice, but it is the incorporation of the
  workflow that brings the most value.
• Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) will be deployed by
  more companies to take advantage of the basic (yet high value) features
  like Search, Versioning and Checking In/Out as a foundational start.
• Fiber-Optic networks will expand, driving down prices
  to make them more accessible to the masses. This will help satisfy our increasing
  appetite for faster Internet and more bandwidth and address our lack of
  patience for slower speed alternatives.

A few other changes to be on the lookout for:

• Businesses will get more comfortable having their data hosted elsewhere.
• SaaS, subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing for applications will become
  more accepted as companies, anxious to hold onto their cash, get comfortable
  paying monthly for services.
• Revenue flow will contribute to a change in the business model of many
  technology companies. There will be less “up front” payment
  for items and more monthly payments as businesses do more “renting.”
  This impacts cash flow, compensation models, pricing, sales processes and
  more.
• More accounting information will be accessed using mobile devices including
  your BlackBerry, iPhone, other smartphones or a Netbook.

RESOURCES

• KnowledgeSync – BAM product (www.vineyardsoft.com)
• Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
  (MOSS) (www.microsoft.com/sharepoint)
• Crystal and Xcelsius (www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/sme/reporting-dashboarding)
• BizNet Software, developers of BizInsight (www.biznetsoftware.com)
• Global Software, developers of several Excel-based tools (www.glbsoft.com)