2014 Nov 17

Open-Source Microsoft Part II - Seeds for the Future

In the previous article, I examined Microsoft's announcement that it will open-source .NET, its impact on customers, and its more important impact on Microsoft's business lines. In sum, I believe that Nadella may be trying to change the culture at Microsoft from one in which they depend on customers being forced to stick with its Windows line to one wherein Microsoft is driven by market forces to develop products and services that customers actively want to buy.

2014 Nov 13

Open-Source Microsoft? Will It Help?

Yesterday, Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, announced that they will release the core of .NET, the Microsoft application development platform, as open-source. In addition, .NET will be ported to run on additional platforms, primarily Mac OS X and Linux. For Microsoft, the ultimate closed-source and proprietary stack company, this is an earth-shattering move. Developers have long had a choice of platforms on which to write applications. Java and its variants, Ruby on Rails, Node, Python, PHP, lately Go and Dart, the list goes on and on.

2014 Nov 11

Price and Plagiarism

The Web is a tool. Like all tools (including swords), it comes with two edges. While in the short term it appears to give advantages in one direction, over time it can surprise you and cut both ways. Plagiarism When my wife, the rather brilliant Dr. Deborah Deitcher, PhD, was first teaching college students at Manhattan College (which is not in Manhattan, but in Riverdale), she warned the students very clearly that she understood the Web as well as they did, understood the temptations to plagiarize, explained what plagiarism was and what it was not - lack of knowledge was not going to be an excuse - and how it would not be tolerated.

2014 Nov 10

Gas Stations, Electric Cars and Changing Minds

Managing change is a process, something between a science and an art, taught in all respectable business schools and management courses. There really are 2 reasons for teaching it: Management: If you are managing a team, a division or a company, you need to understand the emotional and psychological blocks to change, and what it will take to get employees and partners to support change. Marketing: If you are responsible for marketing a product to consumers, or creating an entirely new product, you need to have a solid understanding of what inertia keeps customers in place and what it will take to change them.

2014 Nov 4

The Lost Interview, The Lost Promotion and The Lost Ark

Today, I want to look at 2 short video clips. The Lost Interview This is a famous interview with Steve Jobs, believed lost for many years; if you want more information, imdb info is here. The interview itself is a long but great watch for anyone interested in the history of innovation and the tech markets. However, there is a short 2-minute clip on YouTube on innovation; if you have time for nothing else, watch this.

2014 Nov 3

Know Your Numbers

Last week, I looked at one very small but important aspect of customer relationships - the human face - in the era of online communications, specifically chat, and how and when you market it. The Chief Marketing Officer of LiveChat, Szymon Klimczak, was kind enough to respond, as well as direct me to a few interesting metrics reports that LiveChat releases every year or two, especially the "Customer Happiness Report.

2014 Oct 31

If You've Got It, Flaunt It

In a previous article, I discussed how small changes can make a big difference when engaging with customers. Specifically, the addition of agent pictures to LiveChat can create a closer emotional connection between the customer and the agent, leading to higher customer satisfaction and/or increased sales. Sounds like this was a low-cost investment for LiveChat with potentially a high return. So... why don't they tout it? I spent some time going through LiveChat's Web site.

2014 Oct 30

Giving Web Chat a Human Face

One of the challenges customer support and sales agents face is the balance between efficiency and humanity. The more efficient methods of communication often are very impersonal, while the personal ones are expensive and inefficient. On the one hand, a business wants to provide its services as efficiently as possible. This usually boils down to 2 key elements: Cost: Having an agent at the customer's home or office is very expensive.

2014 Oct 29

Decide Your Business(Insider)

I used to love BusinessInsider, the Internet (and to a lesser extent general business) news site run by Henry Blodget. I am also impressed with how Blodget has reinvented his life. In 2003, he was charged with securities fraud by the infamous Client 9, a.k.a. then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Blodget settled for 2+2 ($2MM fine, $2MM disgorgment of "ill-gotten proceeds") and a lifetime ban from the securities industry.

2014 Oct 27

Why Didn't Google Develop Evernote?

Evernote and its competitors have been quite successful at helping users keep track of information. A major use case is Web pages. You find a Web page you like, but want to keep later for reference. Perhaps it is a reference manual to your car; maybe it is an API for the development language you are working on; it might be 5 interesting articles on educational theory. Whatever it is, you have a need to hold on to certain Web pages and their context for some period of time beyond the next 1-2 hours.