Monthly Archives: May 2012

Tools We Like – Saasu

Online Accounting with Saasu We’ve been running small businesses for the best part of two decades, and like most we relied on MYOB and Quickbooks to keep track of the accounts. Originally it was MYOB and it worked well for us, although it had some serious limitations. MYOB was an absolute pig on a network for multiple users, a problem Continue Reading...

Providing Super Customer Service

Eliminate the Arch Enemies Customer service has always been key to success, but no more so than in this super connected world. Remember the old saying – “provide great service and your customer may tell a friend, provide bad service and they will probably tell ten”. These days they are more likely to tell ten thousand or ten million all Continue Reading...

Turn Products into Services

Creating Product Service Systems I only heard the term “Product Service System” (PSS) a few years ago, but I’ve been creating them all of my business life. In the technology game they’ve been variously known as Application Service Provision (ASP), Software as a Service (SaaS), Hardware as a Service (Haas), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and more recently, more generically Continue Reading...

Customers, Clients and Partners

Are your customers your partners? Retailers typically have Customers. A customer will come in and make a transaction, then disappear until they need something else some time later. There is typically no relationship, although hopefully if the business is doing the right thing there will be some loyalty. Professional service firms have Clients. Lawyers, accountants, IT service providers, real estate Continue Reading...

Survival in the Connected World

Get Connected or Go Home We hear a lot about the struggle of traditional retail and the rise and rise of online retail. All over the world big traditional retailers have disappeared over the last two years, with many citing the internet and plummeting margins as a key factor. I’ve written previously that the internet is only part of their Continue Reading...