Pittsburgh, you’re on a roll…don’t let illegal software slow you down

Posted on 16, May 2012 by theprossman

By Luke Sossi, Enterprise Sales Manager for the Mid-Atlantic District, Microsoft Corp.

These past few weeks have been filled with good news for small businesses in Pittsburgh. Recently, On Numbers ranked Pittsburgh as having the strongest small business sector of 21 major Eastern metros as part of the publication’s annual ratings of small-business climates across the country. It’s exciting to see Pittsburgh’s ranking in this survey skyrocket over the years, from 17^th in 2010 to sixth last year to taking top honors this year.

Also, the most recent PNC Economic Outlook finds that, among several positive trends, Pennsylvania business owners showed a significant improvement in business expectations and optimism compared to Fall 2011 for hiring, profits and sales.

Small business owners in Pittsburgh are on a roll. With such great momentum moving our local small business economy forward, we at Microsoft are focused not only on providing technology solutions that help businesses grow, but also on protecting business owners from technology dangers that can hold them back.

These dangers can be especially insidious as they often come in small packages, like software purchased for a company.

How can something that takes up so little space cause so much harm? Consider how powerful your company’s productivity software is and the efficiency and accuracy benefits it delivers. If counterfeit, something as small as the discs housing these resources can seriously compromise your company’s security, reputation and legal standing.

Here in Pittsburgh, I work closely with local businesses and can confidently say that, when equipped with the facts about illegal software’s dangers, they make more informed decisions about software purchases. However, these conversations have also revealed that some do not have the basic information around why and how counterfeit software impacts business viability. If you fall into that category, consider this a primer on counterfeit software’s dangers:

Increased vulnerability, decreased productivity: Purchasing software from a non-reputable website or software vendor increases the chances of downloading malware or viruses, which makes PCs or laptops slower and less reliable. It also exposes your – and your customers’ – data to fraud. By purchasing softward from reputable Microsoft partners, you’ll decrease your chances of downloading malware and viruses or losing your critical business data, problems that are symptomatic of using counterfeit software.

Nowhere to turn: If your business is in the habit of moving fast to keep pace with competitors and customers, the last thing you want is to be locked out of technical support in a time of need. Counterfeit software doesn’t give you access to protection such as a complimentary subscription to Microsoft Security Essentials, the award-winning antivirus solution from Microsoft.

Legal repercussions: An individual or a company can be found legally responsible for pirating software even if business owners are unaware of copyright infringement. Businesses in possession of counterfeit or non-genuine software face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, years in jail, or both.

This is why your company’s computer software – and where you buy it – matters. By installing only legal Microsoft software, or purchasing a device on which it’s pre-installed, you get the experience you expect and deserve for your investment. For Microsoft software, always look for a Certificate of Authenticity (COA), which helps identify a genuine Microsoft product. Product keys can also be a sign of genuine software as no product key is ever sold separately for Microsoft. Also be wary of online auctions, peer-to-peer networks, and websites that appear legitimate but bear no sign of being verified Microsoft vendors and sell software at a price far below market value.

Some business owners are motivated into action by understanding the risks, but just as many are inspired by knowing how legal software creates an advantage for their companies. Fortunately, I have plenty of that information to share:

Someone who has your back: With legally-obtained, -produced and -licensed software, businesses have access to technical support; ongoing improvements and updates; and unparalleled protection like that from Microsoft Security Essentials. Legal software also includes full documentation to help you get the most from your computing experience.
An economic boost: Your support of local, legitimate technology businesses fuels local jobs and tax revenue, and helps level the competitive playing field. The protection of marketplace intellectual property and marketplace opportunities are invaluable to businesses of all sizes, including yours.
Peace of mind: With authentic, genuine software, you’re positioning your business to win, and ensuring your customers a consistent, secure experience. No amount of savings on software from a suspicious source compares to the confidence your business will feel knowing it’s simply doing the right thing.

Don’t jeopardize the success of your company in this thriving marketplace because of misinformed software purchasing decisions. Learn more about how to make wise technology decisions for your company, employees and customers, by visiting www.microsoft.com/piracy/. And may your business ride this wave of good news into an even more successful future!

Five Key Tips for Keeping Company Data Safe 24×7 from Wombat Security Technologies

Posted on 28, Apr 2012 by Jonathan Kersting

Wombat Security Technologies

Wombat provides security awareness training tips for employees to work securely away from the office. Every security officer should teach their employees these tips to protect company information.

Now that everyone can be connected to the Internet and access job-related software applications 24x7x365 via the cloud, employees can work from just about anywhere. While this is a terrific convenience, it also presents great cyber security risks. According to a recent study by PwC, 82% of large companies reported security breaches caused by staff, including 47% who lost or leaked confidential information. In response to increased cyber security concerns, Wombat Security Technologies offers important tips to help employees work safely where ever they connect.

Don’t take sensitive corporate info home with you on your laptop – Your employer’s data is valuable to thieves. The theft of customer data, trade secrets, company financial information, and other valuable data could cost your employer millions — and could cost you your job.
Free WiFi can be dangerous – when using public WiFi avoid accessing websites with “http://” which can be intercepted by anyone else on the network. Instead use HTTPS for any website that you log into.
Public computers should always be considered unsafe – Key loggers and other malicious software can be installed by cybercriminals remotely to record everything you type. Only browse on public computers, don’t log-in to any sites or personal accounts.
Don’t use file sharing software on your work laptop – Many MP3s or video files available from file-sharing programs contain spyware or viruses. Installing programs like these on your laptop is like leaving your car unlocked.
Don’t let children, or other family, use your company laptop – While well meaning, they might accidentally expose your computer, tablet, or company smartphone to spyware, viruses, or other risks. Even at home, you should lock your laptop when you walk away from it.

While these tips may seem to be common sense practices, there are too few people who actually follow them. More than ever, employees are making many choices every day between safety and convenience forcing businesses to address security beyond the office. Understanding the risks of those choices is the first step in making better, safer decisions.

Wombat Security Technologies offers practical tips like these through their interactive security awareness training products which are uniquely effective at teaching employees how to avoid cyber security attacks.

For more information about Wombat Security technologies, visit www.wombatsecurity.com .

Close the Business Analysis Skills Gap to Improve Business Outcomes

Posted on 18, Apr 2012 by Jonathan Kersting

In the challenging 2012 business environment, customers demand more amid shrinking budgets and shortened timelines. Moreover, mission-critical projects and system enhancements often exceed budget, take too long, and ultimately don’t meet business needs.

Enter the Business Analyst (BA). BAs of today have an expanded role and skill set. They are involved throughout the system development life cycle—from business-process improvement efforts to application enhancements and product development. Because of this, many forward-thinking leaders are coming to the realization that BAs can help them achieve the effective outcomes they need.

On any given day, an online job search using the title “Business Analyst” will return almost 100 openings in the Pittsburgh area alone. And supply isn’t meeting demand. Closing this critical skills gap should be a top priority for any organization looking to increase its project success rates, and to grow and improve its business. A two-pronged approach is best:

Leverage highly skilled BAs to achieve immediate project success
Institute a long-term BA Competency strategy

Assess where you stand today with “Closing the Business Analysis Skills Gap.” To download this FREE white paper, click http://doreenevans.com/free-white-paper-closing-the-business-analysis-skills-gap/.

Godfather of Growth: You Can’t Go Large If You Don’t Generate Demand

Posted on 05, Apr 2012 by Jonathan Kersting

By Don Lazzari, Delivering Value LLC

Ciao amici. It’s good to see you again at our new meeting place, Techburger. For those of you who have joined us for the first time, organizations in the know call me The Godfather of Growth. Each month, we get together to talk business – how to grow sales, manage your people and take your business from a small operation into one that the other capos will look at with envy. So grab a double espresso and listen up.

This month we are going to talk about generating demand. We’re all aware that you can’t grow without expanding your network of people who bring money into the organization – customers. But a significant challenge for many organizations is finding enough potential sales opportunities to add customers at a rate that fuels the growth of the business. For this month’s discussion, we are going to focus on how to generate demand if you are a B to B. In the B to B world, many of the new and innovative social media tactics that B to C companies are employing with great success may not produce as much traction. While I may go to Facebook or Twitter to ask my network about a restaurant or a car, chances aren’t as likely that I’ll go there to ask about a technology product or service that will solve a business problem for me. So let’s look at what successful emerging B to Bs are doing bridge the gap.

Before we start, let me dispel one notion. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to generate demand. When you have a ton of money it only broadens what you can do, it doesn’t necessarily make it any more effective. So if you are part of an emerging company with a limited budget, don’t get discouraged. Successful demand generation rarely, if ever, is free. It does require some level of investment. But if you are a wise about how you spend the limited dollars you have, you can make a modest budget produce more than modest results.

Successful demand generation includes three main facets – awareness, passive demand generation and active demand generation. Let’s look at awareness first. In order for someone to buy my product or service, they first need to be aware that it exists. There are a number of avenues that require almost no investment other than your time. The first and most obvious is the Internet. Here’s what you can do for free. Add key search word and meta tags to your web site to make it easier to find your business through a Google search. Want to increase this, blog about a subject that is pertinent to your industry, your customers or your products or submit articles for publication in e-magazines. The more present you are on the Internet with fresh information, the higher you’ll appear in a search. Yes, there companies who have expertise in search engine optimization that can help you do this; but you’d be surprised what you can do on your own.

You can also increase awareness by submitting stories to industry publications and blogs that feature how your customers solved a business problem by using your product or service. In addition, you can also apply to speak at industry conferences or gatherings. One thing that you have to remember is that most potential buyers will care little about hearing how innovative or revolutionary your product is, so don’t produce product feature/function infomercials. Focus your content on customer experience because your future customers are very interested in what their peers are doing to solve the same business problems they face. If you are fortunate enough to have someone who is adept at writing on your team, you can do everything that I’ve mentioned for less than $500. If you don’t, there are plenty of very capable and reasonable contract writers who can help you do it very cost effectively.

Let’s move on now to marketing. If you are part of my sales family, marketing doesn’t mean producing clever, colorful brochures and websites. It means producing potential sales opportunities as in leads. There are two basic approaches to marketing efforts – passive and active.

Passive marketing means that you have no way to directly engage with a potential customer when their interest is sparked. You have to rely on them to act. Two good examples of passive marketing are trade shows and advertising. Both help you find potential customers but the onus of action is on the customer. It’s kind of like fishing in a river. You throw bait into the water and hope that the type of fish that you want to catch bites. You’re also hoping that enough of those types will bite so that it has an impact on sales. For me, there’s too much hope here my friends and we all know that hope is not a strategy.

Active marketing is where you are taking your message to your potential customers in a systematic and targeted fashion. You are doing things to prompt them into acting. A great example of active marketing is an email campaign to a well-defined group of targets that is coupled with active outbound calling. All things being equal, this is the approach that will most likely produce the best results for dollars invested. Just like with awareness, your campaigns will be more effective if you feature a customer and not your product or service.

So here’s my advice if you are an emerging company with limited budget. Favor investing in active marketing over passive marketing. Then do as much as you can for free or almost free to boost awareness. Also, be certain that your active marketing efforts include telephone follow-up. Active follow-up can be a real difference maker in finding prospective clients.

Before I say arrivaderci, let me share with you what the 2012 demand generation investment looks like for a client who wants to increase sales from less than a million to more than 3 million with a modest, but appropriate investment in marketing.

2% awareness – (includes contract writing services)
7% fulfillment – (includes brochures and collateral)
75% active demand generation for 20 campaigns – (includes email and direct mail campaign materials, list purchase/rental, telephone follow-up, supporting software)
16% trade shows and events – (includes one national conference and one executive level event)

As you can see, they are favoring targeted marketing with active follow-up. They have limited their trade show appearances and other passive tactics to one national conference and one executive conference. Something that I’d strongly recommend everyone considered doing since I consistently see too much marketing investment spend being devoted to trade shows. They are also spending nothing on advertising. Something I’d also strongly recommend. For dollar spent, advertising is least effective in B to B settings. Use advertising once your company has emerged to bolster awareness, assert market position and build brand. Don’t do it when you are still trying to breakthrough.

We’re running out of time for this month’s meeting. If you need my help, you can find me at godfatherofgrowth@deliveringvalue.biz . You can also call me at 412-973-8909 but be careful what you say because you never know who’s listening.

Don’t forget you can stay connected with what’s happening in the sales family @GrowthGodfather on Twitter. Ciao for now my friends.

Godfather of Growth: Focus is the Fuel of Rapid Growth

Posted on 30, Mar 2012 by Jonathan Kersting

By Don Lazzari, Delivering Value LLC

Ciao amici. It’s good to see you again. For those of you who have joined us for the first time, organizations in the know call me The Godfather of Growth. Each month, we’re going to get together to talk business – how to grow sales, manage your people and take your business from a small operation into one that the other capos will look at with envy. So grab a double espresso and listen up.

This month we are going to talk about focus. Focus is the fuel of rapid growth. I know this because I’ve seen its effects a number of times in a variety of markets. I was part of an organization that grew sales by a multiple of 90 in three and a half years growing from $250,000 to $22.5 million. I watched as Keith Nosbusch, at the time the incoming CEO at Rockwell Automation, used focus to take Rockwell from $3.5 billion to $7 billion and beyond in just a few years. Focus means taking dead aim at a market segment or, for larger companies a limited set of segments, so that you eliminate distractions. Distractions are expensive to new and emerging organizations. When you focus you minimize wasted time, wasted effort and most importantly wasted cash. Now if you’re thinking “big deal who didn’t know that” then maybe you should pay extra close attention to what I’m going to say because something that appears so obvious is not practiced by an alarming number of companies. So let’s find out if you’re truly focused or you just think you are.

In order to take dead aim on a market segment, you need to spend a lot of time thinking about who your ideal customer is and you have to be very specific – as if your life depended on it. This will take time and many paths may lead to dead ends. But if you successfully maneuver all of the obstacles, the results can transform your business. Let’s talk about the most common mistakes you need to avoid.

Mistake #1 Taking a Product Functionality Point of View

The first mistake I see companies make is that they take a product functionality view. “Our ideal customer is someone who needs to measure the oxygen saturation in their blood” or whatever their leading product feature might be. I’m sorry to say that I hear this a lot. When you are thinking about who your ideal customer is, you have to take their approach. Few people think “I need to measure the oxygen saturation in my blood”. They think more from a problem and solution point of view. For example: “I need to know when I might be on the verge of an asthma attack so I can avoid going to the hospital.” I’ve seen many great products fall by the wayside because their organizations were unable to do this successfully and technology companies are more likely than others to make this mistake.

Mistake # 2 Not Being Mission Critical

Some organizations are able to avoid the first trap to only get caught in the second. Just because you can solve a customer’s problem doesn’t increase the likelihood they’ll buy. But solving a significant problem that has a direct and quantifiable impact on their business can be magic – especially when you can show how you help them to increase revenue (or monetary upside benefit if you are B to C) versus reduce or avoid cost. A prime example of this is in the senior care market. I was involved with a company that sold to organizations that operate nursing homes and assisted living facilities. These organizations generate most of their revenue by billing federal and state governments for services provided and Medicare or Medicaid are their primary payers. By being able to show in a factual, measurable way that investing in technology would increase the reimbursement that they could receive, our products became mission critical and we were able to get direct access to the most senior executives in these organizations because we could show we would have a direct and significant impact on their business.

Mistake #3 A Lack of Granularity

Some companies make it past the first two obstacles only to fall victim to the third by not going beyond mission critical. Being mission critical is table stakes when it comes to rapid growth. What separates the winners from the also-rans is taking focus to its most granular level. Let’s stay with our senior care example. I’ve determined that I can make a solid case for being mission critical and producing quantifiable results for senior care providers. But to really have focus that drives growth and minimizes distraction, I need to get more specific. Which portion of the senior care market will find my products most attractive? Why? If I capture just a few percentage points of this portion is it sufficiently large enough to fuel the growth of my business? Is it sufficiently large enough to grow it significantly? The reason this organization was successful was that they were able to answer these questions accurately and with a high level of specificity. “Our ideal customer is a top executive of a multi-site, for-profit senior care organization who operates nursing homes in case mix states because we can provide demonstrable value by increasing reimbursement. By successfully capturing 5% of this total market of 5,000 facilities our company will grow to $22 million in sales.”

Mistake #4 Failing to Get to Alignment

Once you get to this level of granularity, the most attractive segment of the market segment comes sharply into focus. And once you have this level of focus you can now align your company’s resources behind it and make the most of your available cash. Granted, this takes courage but the companies who grow rapidly stay the course. But to achieve alignment you have to be sure to communicate clearly to your organization the rationale and outcomes they can expect by getting into alignment with your granular view of your ideal customer. This communication has to be repeated and reinforced until it becomes accepted fact by a large majority of your organization. Those who don’t believe should be encouraged to go elsewhere because you need all facets of your organization to have the same granular view of your ideal customer at the same degree of focus that your leadership team does.

Mistake #5 Not Staying Disciplined

Most companies do not make it past the fourth obstacle. It’s understandable. It takes a lot of time and can be very frustrating at times. Those who do this have one more obstacle in the way before they unlock rapid growth and that’s discipline. And the obstacle that most often gets in their way falling victim to the head-turning opportunity that is not part of the granular picture and the alignment they’ve worked hard to establish. I see this happen more than I’d like. A company has run the gauntlet to get to focus successfully and a couple of months later they encounter a sizeable opportunity that does not match with their granular view of the ideal customer but they chase it any way. This is the business equivalent of the siren’s song and you have to resist it. Because being seduced by it will result in distractions and diverting the full attention of your company away from the prime targets that will drive repeatable and sustainable growth. Also by doing so you create organizational confusion. The teams that thought you wanted them to go down one path are suddenly going down another. Even if this is for a short time, your organization is likely to second guess what you are doing so the next time you try to get to alignment they’ll question your commitment. This is a very difficult obstacle to navigate and many companies are unsuccessful in doing so.

We’re running out of time for this month’s meeting. If you are the leader of a new or emerging business you need to think long and hard about what I’ve said about focus. There is no doubt that is the fuel for rapid growth providing you avoid the obstacles that stand in your way.

Grazie mille for spending time with me today. Remember if you need my help in a situation, you can find me at godfatherofgrowth@deliveringvalue.biz or you can stay connected with what’s happening on Twitter @GrowthGodfather. And remember, if you need my help I’m only a phone call away at 412-973-8909 but be careful what you say because you never know who’s listening.

Ciao for now my friends.