Month: May 2012

A new report from entrepreneurial firm Growthink, Inc. has shed some light on exactly what metrics business owners and executives may want to be monitoring and how to accomplish this.

According to the firm, there are certain Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that businesses must keep track of in order to accurately gauge their performance and current state of affairs. Growthink calls the cumulation of these statistics a company's "financial dashboard." These KPIs include: sales, new customers, subscribers, press mentions, website visitors, products manufactured and the costs of goods sold.

"You can not improve what you cannot measure," said Dave Lavinsky, president and co-founder of Growthink. "You need to track your progress to make sure you are always getting closer to achieving your goals. Your financial dashboard allows you to achieve these two objectives."

According to the report, in order for businesses to build an accurate and customized financial dashboard, they must first choose which KPIs to include. Although monitoring all of them would be excellent, that level of data management can be overkill for small businesses that may not have the technological means to do so.

Furthermore, these companies must also choose how often to monitor these KPIs. In order for businesses to retain the most accurate information from data sets, the indicators must be monitored on a routine basis, eliminating any possibility of outliers or uncontrolled variables altering the information.

In addition to a regular schedule of database monitoring, companies should have a standard to compare their results to. Without having other figures – either from previous years or goals that have been mandated by executives – the data lacks a sense of perspective that could be essential in making decisions to improve business productivity.

Small businesses may want to invest in custom database software in order to store and incorporate these KPIs into one succinct and customized financial dashboard. Consulting FileMaker developers may help businesses with the integration and development of this database. 

With more companies switching to cloud computing as a means to store essential documents or work papers, many employees are taking advantage of this by working remotely. Oftentimes working away from the desk can increase morale and cause a nice change of scenery to the usual office space, but sometimes it can cause communication issues that could prove costly.

The use of a custom database software like FileMaker can be very effective for those who are working remotely as it can store and share many important documents and information between employees.

If employees wish to combat these risks and maintain a productive workday away from the office, they may want to adhere to some of these tips provided from major technology website, Wired.

According to Wired, working remotely can be very easy, it just requires a "digital omnipresence." Being in all digital places at one time is needed in order to successfully complete the necessary work and assignments, while still maintaining excellent communication with fellow employees. Wired says that the use of cloud based services can easily help share documents from personal computers to colleagues in the office.

Also, those working remotely will need to ensure they aren't missing anything nor leaving anyone out of the loop by informing co-workers that they will be out of the office that day. This level of communication is critical to the point where Wired suggests that employees and managers working away from their desk take the effort to respond quickly to inquiries and even "over-communicate" to ensure that nothing gets lost between one computer and another.

If business owners wish to give themselves or their employees the opportunity to take advantage of this technology, they may want to consult a FileMaker developer. 

Many companies collect data on their customers, everything from online clicking habits or shopping patterns. But although this data may be stored in a custom database, it won't do much unless the employees know how to use it. To that effect, FastCompany has offered three tips for companies to follow to accurately use its data.

According to FastCompany, businesses should be able to give the customer a sense of control while taking advantage of the data. For example, when major retailer Target first started to recognize pregnant customers based on their purchasing patterns, rather than directly affronting them with prenatal products, Target would send flyers that included only a few of those products with an abundance of random items mixed in.

Although the company was able to increase sales by accurately marketing to the right customer, it was done in a way that wasn't on-the-nose and made the customer feel in control of their decisions.

Also, when companies are directly talking to customers or clients it's important for the employees to have a wealth of data available on hand, but to only mention what is necessary. Although this is very similar to the first rule on allowing the customer to feel as if they still maintain control, this is more about privacy.

When FastCompany's contributor, Sean Madden, was speaking with a representative at Amazon he asked if they could send it to his "Northeast Ninth Avenue" address without previously mentioning that he listed it. The representative said yes and that was it. Discretion has become a key way for companies to use data when it comes to customer relations.

But, in order for employees to successfully practice these tips and tricks, FastCompany says that they must first have the right tools to get the job done. By investing in a database software or custom application development, managers and executives can ensure they will provide their customers with the proper tools to effectively use customer data. 

According to Inc. Magazine, "data is the new oil." As business productivity software and custom database solutions become increasingly popular, it's become even more imperative that companies keep up by investing in a custom application software to help hold and organize all the data that's being used.

This goes for all companies, from major corporations to small business and fledgling startups.

Inc. Magazine states that small businesses need to measure everything in order to get the greatest benefit from using data and analytics in business operations. The magazine gives an example from Ampush Media, a major marketing company, measuring the time customers spend between questions on a mortgage site.

"We started to look at the time between steps," said Jesse Pujji, the co-founder and president of the company. "We noticed that for more than 5 percent of visitors, if they hesitated more than two to three milliseconds at a step, we would lose them. We set up the site so that whenever there was that kind of hesitation, it would deliver an inspirational message, such as 'Low rates are just a few clicks away.' That improved conversion rates by 30 to 40 percent."

Although measuring the clicking habits of online shoppers is extremely important for small businesses – even if they do not primarily conduct e-commerce – measuring other aspects of business from inventory to employee payroll is essential to ensure that this raw data can be turned into information and insight on how well the company is functioning.

Companies can achieve this clarity by investing in a custom database software that can accumulate and display this information to fit the business owner's needs and increase business productivity.