Collaboration & Collaboration Platforms

My web site http://www.collaborationip.yolasite.com/ now has the full white paper on collaboration and collaboration platforms, the top 10 tips on collaboration and the business case for investment in collaboration and collaboration platforms.

Top 10 Tips for successful Collaboration & Collaboration Platforms

Top 10 Tips for successful Collaboration & Collaboration Platforms

OVERVIEW

Collaboration is a human activity which takes place as part of the human systems in an organization. We understand that the culture and behaviors in an origination impact on the level and benefits of collaboration. We also understand that use of social media and collaboration platforms provide individuals and groups with tools to accelerate collaboration.

To release the talent within our organization and its interfaces with the external world enhancing collaboration and changing the way we work is essential. Based on research and experience we outline the top 10 critical success factors (In no order of priority as the maturity of each organization will require different priorities)

1.     Link to Business Goals; It’s important that any collaboration program has a business case connected to the organizations KPI’s. If innovation is goal revenue from new products may be a KPI.

2.     Identify Program KPI’s; there are program KPI’s that measure more directly the impact of collaboration interventions. Collaboration outcomes such as No of new products, reduced cycle times etc. or collaboration process No. of active communities, no of information entries etc.

3.     Understand current collaboration maturity; Allows focus on interventions and program activities to match organizations learning level.

4.     Create an OD change program enabled by IT;  This is a change management exercise with huge potential benefits and we know changing people’s behaviors and the way they work need careful facilitation

5.     Make collaboration a core cultural value;   a central behavior and” way we work” value that is rewarded.

6.     Training & Awareness; Enabling stakeholders to participate in the change and accelerate organization learning requires training and development for individuals and groups both interpersonal & on the tools.

7.     Select Integrated Platform;   in choosing tools to enable collaboration whether they are public domain social media or an organization platform make sure it supports and integrates with the culture as well as the current tool sets.

8.     Dedicated Leadership & Facilitation ;  A critical success factor is that the leaders “walk the talk”, a senior executive is accountable and most importantly there are new roles required to facilitate , mediate and support users in getting the best from the system as well as the normal technology support..

9.     Pilot & Proof of Concept;   Validate the program plan, cultural change goals and the technology. Create early success and implement the priority features.

10.   Publicize and Reward; A Where core outcomes are being realized.

For more information

declan.kavanagh@deckav.com

myles@holignment.com

Collaboration Maturity Diagnosis

The Importance of cost effective marketing for start-ups

What is an appropriate integrated Marketing approach for start-up?

I frequently meet with start-up entrepreneurs and,  in discussion or review of business plans often find that their focus on marketing is at either end of the spectrum, and only rarely calibrated to the maturity of the business. At one end “Marketing is not important for now and/or a very expensive activity with limited return” or “Marketing is so important we have 50% of our budget dedicated to a whole range of activities” and rarely is the Marketing Plan correctly supporting the business goals, aligned with the business maturity and integrated in a cost effective manner with the operational plan for the next period.

Firstly it’s important not to mix up market research with marketing. Market Research is a set of activities that entrepreneurs should complete before committing to a business and on a regular basis to make sure the plan and business remains relevant to the goals of the organisation. Marketing on the other hand, may have many purposes but I think there are two that start-ups should focus on;

·         Starting or building a brand

·         Generation of appropriate sales leads

I believe that marketing is the early stage in a process of creating a relationship with a client and feeding an input into a system and process that ends up with a happy client for the product and/or service the business offers and money in the bank.

1.       Brand: - In its simplest form it’s what do you want the market and individuals to think when they hear your name, your company name and/or product name: - Usually it’s one or more value judgments that are perceived as why you are different and why I should seriously consider buying from you.

2.       Leads: - A lead is any interaction from a prospective customer either proactively or in response to any intervention you may make in the market place that has the potential to convert to a profitable sale.

a.       A Marketing Lead is an input perhaps as a response to a marketing intervention that marketing checks out to see if it’s a real sales lead, if it is it gets promoted to the sales process for qualification , if not it gets returned to the marketing list.

b.      A Sales lead can come from many sources, its an indication there may be a prospect in or moving into buying mode. It needs to be qualified as an opportunity, ie  Is the customer buying?  Have they budget ? Is the timeline in the horizon?  Have we a competitive offer?  Once qualified the core sales cycle starts with a view to closing a sale.

When should new business start marketing?

If we consider the two primary goals of marketing above, then firstly we must have clarity on the problem we will solve for the client or the value of the opportunity we can bring to the client. We also must be able to supply the product or service in sufficient volume to meet the market demands that we might create. This does not mean we have to supply all features, functions or services we are planning to bring to market, however we need to be able to supply a defined limited set of these that address why the client has become a lead. For example if our business proposition is some form of social media Software as a Service underpinned by certain free features and upgraded to additional pay as you use features, then we must have available the basic software platform that as a minimum users see value in and will engage with and perhaps one or two of the planned pay for features. In time and with learning we may add all sorts of additional pay for features and revenue streams.

We also need to have a clear understanding of our core competence, core offering and how it is unique and different from the competition. What are the unique selling points that provide advantage over the competition and are different?

Beware of the following:-

·         It’s a new market, we have first mover advantage, and there is no competition. There is always competition and failure to have this mind set regularly leads to failure. It may be something very new and creating some new market segment, but the customer can always do nothing and not buy, also though there may be significant innovation and early advantage it will not be long before there are competitors if it’s a real market opportunity.

·         Beware of a long list of USP’s, it can dilute the message and brand. A good way to convey the message is a matrix comparing your product/service USP’s with those of your competitors, show what is common and show what is different.

·         Focus on your core defined, customer, offering and competence and identify the one major uniqueness that is your prime differentiator and will become part of your brand “The fastest, the highest Quality, The cheapest (beware of this one)..etc.

There are 2 major components of marketing:-

·         Content:- This is the core data and information required to support a marketing plan and program, it is the fundamental stuff , the messages, the details of your company, product/service, how you delivery, the value and propositions etc. There is equally as much investment and effort required here as there is in the actual marketing activities.  The source of this information is largely you the promoter and,  your team who are the subject matter experts.

·         Activities:- These are all the other activities, deliverables and plans that require a degree of professional experience and expertise and for start-ups usually require some level of 3^rd party support.

What start-ups need to be good at is extracting the core content in a cost effective manner,  to be provided to the marketing professional who converts it into meaningful and useful content,  and activities that support achieving the marketing goals.

So in summary it’s important to have a marketing strategy and plan at the point you are going to market and ready to sell, and that the content is available for the marketing interventions.

Marketing is a process

Just as with any other process it’s important to make sure the various components and activities of the marketing process are aligned and integrated. I will use a few terms here, so for clarity I will explain:-

Marketing Plan:- 12 month operational plan designed to support the business goals. State what we expect marketing investment to deliver each quarter, have metrics weekly and quarterly. Project plan for the interventions.

Marketing Campaign:- Is a mini marketing plan that is more focused on shorter term objectives perhaps to launch a product, or target a specific segment, or to secure a reference in geography as examples.

CRM:- Customer Relationship Management is the process whereby we record and manage details of our relationship and engagement with our potential customers and customers.

Marketing Lead:- Details of any Target customer and related future opportunity if any in whom we have identified and we want to create a relationship. Marketing Leads come together as part of our core marketing lists we use for campaigns and interventions. They are extremely important because regardless of how many sales calls we make or promotions to the market only a small number of potential clients will be in buying mode (i.e. in or about to enter a buying cycle), those that we identify as in buying mode go straight into our sales process as a lead. The majority will not be in buying mode and what we want to achieve is to regularly communicate and keep our value proposition in their consciousness so that when they do go into buying mode they will contact our company.

Marketing Lists:- These are specific target customer and customer details that may be categorised for specific campaigns and interventions relevant to their specific segment.

Marketing Intervention:- These are the specific actions or activities we have identified as having the maximum impact on achieving our marketing or campaign goals. They are like a menu of ingredients we can bring together to achieve specific marketing goals.

·         Events (Seminars, Conferences, Breakfast sessions)

·         Forums (Customer focus groups, advisory panels, etc.)

·         Web platforms and sites

·         Advertising

·         Sponsorship

·         Trade Association engagement

·         PR

·         Collateral – Brochures, White Papers, Case Studies, References

·         On-Line engagement, emails, blogs, wikis, social media, webinars

There are many different types of marketing interventions and you must select those interventions that are relevant to your business. Beware of stand-alone interventions. I have seen so many company seminars, where the whole focus is on the event itself, planning the session, getting the invites and confirmations, running the event and looking at what contacts were made on the day. This is an approach that fails to maximise ROI on the investment in that event. A more effective approach is as follows:-

·         The event itself must have goals and fit with the annual marketing plan.

·         The event itself requires a marketing plan

·         The process of managing attendees is part of relationship development, maximising the value they get from attendance. Have a plan for engagement with each attendee.

·         Seek as much feedback and engagement in the topic and the event

·         Immediately on completion of the event have a round table with all participants so that all leads, opportunities, suggestions can be considered and actions followed up.

·         Announce the next related event or intervention at the event

·         Update web site, social media sites within 24 hours

·         Feed everything into the core processes, sales, marketing, delivery etc.

The Sales & Marketing Pipe line and integrated process to be managed

A Sample Marketing Model

This is a model I have used in the past, it’s primarily designed for an ICT professional services company, however it’s a way to try visualise how you can make things fit together. The core of this model was to have a content rich Web site at the focal point and to use as many interventions as possible to drive traffic to the web site. The website is key for capturing potential customer information, for inclusion as a Marketing Lead, Sales Lead or Sales opportunity. In addition the details can now be included on the organisations marketing list to start building the relationship (with the potential customer’s permission).

Managing Marketing in a start up

The key is plan performance and measure performance and do this in a way that is integrated with your standard operational management processes. As you would review Sales, Delivery, Development, Finances weekly, monthly and quarterly make sure you do the same with marketing.

Keep track of interventions and response to interventions:-

Marketing can also track the marketing and sales pipeline drawing the raw data from CRM or whatever spread sheet it is being tracked on:-

Tips for controlling start-up marketing costs

·         When preparing content prepare it in a way that can have multiple uses.

·         Re use content, for example a case study or white paper, can be a paper for a speaking engagement, can be a piece in an e-zine, can be collateral on the web site, can be a proposition for social media engagement.

·         Engage with key trade and state organisations , they provide opportunity to communicate and network with target markets.

·         Sponsor and participate in the events of others can be more cost effective than organising your own event.

·         Leverage open source and also freemium IT/web applications, you can build your own web site for free, social media groups are free to join and contribute.

·         Engage a really experience Marketing professional to advise and oversee the program, 1 or 2 days per week/month can deliver much higher value than hiring a graduate.

·         Measure impact of interventions and quickly stop doing those that do not deliver a return.

·         Don’t start with big brand suppliers of related services, they are good but expensive. There are many one man bands and small companies that would deliver appropriate expertise and services at lower costs.

Collaboration Maturity & Collaboration Platforms

How do we release talent within & across organisations (Collaboration)?

With the advent of social media and collaboration platforms, the tools available to leaders and managers have become sophisticated and powerful.  However the ability of organisations to effectively deploy and realise the potential of these new tools can be hampered by the culture, structure and processes within the organisation.

To compete or even to survive many knowledge based organisations need to accelerate innovation, creativity, knowledge sharing /re use and productivity. Increasing the productive engagement of stakeholders whether it be within and organisation or with external stakeholders leveraging the available tools requires a change in how we work.

The purpose of a collaboration platform is:-

a)      Speeding up Responsiveness

b)      Facilitating Innovation

c)       Enhancing Learning

d)      Growing the competence mass of the organization

e)      Increasing the capacity and speed of organizational intelligence

f)       Improving Involvement and Sharing Responsibility

Primary areas for organisation consideration are:-

b)      Enterprise 2.0 - Inside the organization to improve:

a)      efficiency and productivity

c)       B2C 2.0 - Connecting with customers/stakeholders to improve

a)      profitability and customer satisfaction

Organisations are fundamentally human systems made up of people, communities and teams and therefore are the core to any change to accelerate overall performance. Managers and Leaders when designing interventions whether Organisation development or Introducing change such as new technology often omit to take into account the organisation maturity and behavioural capacity of the individuals and teams within.

Why is organisation Development a key component to collaboration?

Because getting the most from the product is as much a people/organizational issue as a technical issue -

¡  Collaboration is an interpersonal activity & should be introduced & managed accordingly – otherwise, it will fail

¡  It is the most complex form of organizational activity and needs an O-D & Change-Management approach

¡  It has the greatest capacity for organizational transformation of any O-D intervention

¡  It can be truly systemic in scope – from customer to production and all stakeholders, functions, etc.

n  “The system is the product”

¡  Systemic Collaboration offers Organizational Advantage, which is best achieved through an Organization-Development approach

¡  Organizational Effectiveness improves performance, retention and sustainable growth

The power and features  of new technologies (Collaborative Platforms, such as Lotus Connections, MS SharePoint, Facebook, Mindtouch etc.) facilitate knowledge creation and re use. The ability to create communities, facilitate rapid identification of a person, expertise or information, make the process of innovation and collaboration be time and location independent can really accelerate the performance and creativity of an organisation.

Deploying these new platforms is not just an IT project and regardless of how mature and effective your IT management processes are, you may fail to leverage the benefits if you do not consider the organisation development factors.

COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY + COLLABORATION MATURITY = COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM

The level of collaborative maturity differs from organisation to organisation, so how do we measure it, in order that our program to roll out a collaborative platform may include appropriate OD interventions, whether they are education, awareness, structure, coaching, facilitation etc. Most Models out there such as CMMi or ISO are descriptive and require a significant commitment, they are not based on the fundamental principles of human systems and human behaviour (And related psychology), they do not consider how humans and organisations learn and change.

However we now have a simple scientific model that allows prompt and effective measurement of the collaboration maturity in an organisation so that any project/program to accelerate innovation, productivity and knowledge sharing leveraging collaboration platform(s) can have the OD interventions and components built into the program.

The Collaboration Maturity Model

n  THE PROBLEM for optimising Collaboration has been identified: it IS getting people to use it, i.e. TRACTION

n  The Model was  DESIGNED with one thing in mind – TO GAIN TRACTION for interventions

n  It does this by measuring the level of organizational functioning so that it can be raised across the board to the required level to optimise collaboration

n  No other framework exists to cater for both organizational diagnosis and intervention guidance

The model is underpinned by human science research and the primary inputs to the model are based on on-line questionnaires that can be completed by participants within 20 minutes.

The outputs of the Model are 1. A report on the maturity level in your organisation on all key dimensions of collaboration, and recommended OD interventions to support your overall collaboration business program.  2. A visual dashboard of the maturity on all dimensions of collaboration maturity.

As well as providing guidance on the OD elements of a program, it also provides a benchmark that can be conducted periodically to ensure the interventions and ant platform program are having the desired effect and ensure the correct timing for further/future OD interventions as an organisation drives towards the Leadership Zone.

How does it fit in the deployment of a collaboration platform?

1.       Business decision to improve collaboration

2.       Business goals and business case for program

a.       Financial, Creativity, Productivity..etc.

b.      New Products/services , cycle times, lead times

c.       Maturity dimensions

3.       Measure collaborative Maturity

a.       On Line questionnaire & reports

b.      Small number of interviews/workshops

c.       Confirm threshold has been reached (Research to date suggests an organisation must be in or entering the learning zone before any platform investment is made)

d.      Design interventions

4.       Create Platform roll out program and project plan

5.       Execute plan

6.       Measure KPI’s and maturity to ensure benefits are being realised.

A Key consideration

To achieve the overall objectives , these new techniques for working as individuals and teams must become central to the leadership and management culture and require on-going support and facilitation. (More on this in the future)

Getting your first Customers (Don’t give it for free)

Getting your first Customers (Don’t give it for free)

I learned early in my career that nothing comes for free, and early stage companies need to keep that in the back of their mind as they approach initial target clients. Stakeholders, whether they be shareholders or promoters , knowing the importance of getting the first user of their product/service and early customers, often don’t think through the consequences of giving away their product or service at deep discounts or for free. In addition new on-line businesses often have a freemium model to get users and potential clients using a basic level of their on-line solution, with a view that they will buy the premium offering once they get hooked on the service. I am not suggesting that these approaches are wrong, what I have observed is they are not thought through, and thus ultimately often do not deliver the expected benefits. This opinion piece is intended to provide a few pointers for readers as to how to secure the target value intended, by reducing the price to early customers. Some considerations are as follows:-

Pricing

Trading

Alpha Customers

Beta Customers

Proof of Concepts & Pilots

Conversion to paying customers

Pricing

Pricing is a subject of a separate opinion piece, so there is an assumption here that the research has been done to design your pricing model. You made need to test pricing in the market, however don’t mix this exercise up with securing early customers. I have often seen organisations set their pricing based on what they can get from an early customer, or worse have a different price for every customer even though the value proposition is fundamentally the same. That is not to say pricing may differ depending on the product/service or specific sector.

Trading

There is an inherent value in your product or service, the value will normally be reflected in your price, but for some organisations it may be a social value in the broadest terms (NGO, Public Sector, and Association). I am largely concentrating on commercial organisations, however the principals apply generally. So right from the start of our organisation engaging with potential clients we should have a trading hat on. What does that mean? It means as we reduce the price for our product/service proposition, with the objective of securing early customers, we get something in return. What we get in return may differ from organisation to organisation, examples:-

·         Subject to the customer achieving an objective, they would move closer to the target market price at a future date.

·         The customer would provide data and information to your organisation to help inform you on the product/service performance or opportunity for improvement.

·         The customer would act as a reference

Similar thinking can apply to the on-line e-business model also.

I recommend a simple contract/agreement in all circumstances so that the responsibilities of both parties are defined, deliverables and benefits defined, commercials are defined, IPR is protected, and a roadmap towards full commercial relationship with the early customer is outlined.

Alpha Customers

Alpha customers are customers who agree to engage with your organisation in the very early stages of the new product/service life cycle. They are important to your organisation because you can have real world customers inform your design process and validate any market assumptions. You are important to them because they feel they can influence your product/service to match their business needs and perhaps get early access to you product or service giving them some form of future competitive advantage. The trade with an alpha customer is largely information. Make sure processes are defined and documented agreement is in place.

Beta Customers

When an organisation has a market ready product/service and before full market launch, it is good practice to trial the product or service with a small group of friendly customers. For the customer they get early access and additional support from your organisation,  you get real world validation and potential early production reference clients. In trading with these clients you will give them advantageous commercial terms and additional supports, they will give you information, references etc . . . . It’s important that the agreement acknowledges that they are taking early releases of your product, which has been fully tested but may have teething problems and that additional supports and services are being provided should these issues arise. Warranties and liabilities will be waivered to some degree for a period. It’s important that your organisation does not see the primary objective of a Beta customer as testing of your product or service, what it is, is real world validation after testing. It’s also important the timeline and roadmap towards full commercial pricing and terms are outlined or you could have an un-profitable customer on your books for a life time.

Proof of concepts (POC)-(Pilots)

There are two types of POC which have a customer engagement. 1) Alpha or Design POC and 2) Beta or customer POC. The principals for both are very similar:-

·         Objectives: The objective is to prove some concept/theory, so a clear set of qualitative and quantitative statements need to be made, so stakeholders can determine if the concept has been proved.

·         Scope: The scope of a POC is limited usually in time, cost, and function which should again be clearly stated within the concept of the objectives.

·         Assumptions & Conditions: These need to be defined in the context of the objectives and scope so assumptions can be validated and conditions can be controlled.

·         Approach: Defines how the POC will be executed

·         Deliverables: What are the tangible and intangible outcomes expected. What are the impacts and results we desire.

·         Consequences: This is the most important component and the one most often omitted. What will happen if the concept is proved? Inconclusive ?, Unproved ?

Alpha POC: - Might be we have a preferred technology to be designed into our new product and two alternatives, working with supplier partner A, and customer partner B, we will build and test a subset of the product or service and the best outcome technology will be selected and designed into final product or service and the customer will agree to be a Beta client.

Beta/Customer POC: - The customer is procuring a product/service/solution they are unclear as to whether your solution is the best value proposition as compared with alternatives, and you agree to run a POC. If the POC is proven then the customer agrees to buy or include in a procurement process, or move to full list price. (If the POC is paid for or partially funded by the customer, agreement is needed on what happens to a POC IPR after the POC)

Conversion to Full paying Customer

If you have a free offering, or deep discount offering to secure clients/users, it’s essential to have processes, models and skills that convert what are effectively traditional sales leads and opportunities to full paying customers. Remember it’s just part of the customer acquisition and sales process at the start of the cycle, what we want to do is accelerate towards being a full paying customer. You are starting an engagement with a potential customer. Think of it as the courtship phase and consummation of the relationship is when the customer parts with money and you deliver your full product/service. Traditional selling models are well documented, however new e-business model require close attention, the term land grab is often used to maximise the number of on-line users, perhaps through giving entry level services free, however a strong structure/process is required to maximise the conversion rates to paying customers, and equally as important is to minimise churn, that is continue to ensure the customer is using and deriving value from being a registered, fee paying customer. Conversion techniques:

·         Usability is the very first step in ensuring you capture new potential clients and start moving them towards fee paying customers. Regardless of the device they access from whether PC, Laptop or other mobile device such as a smartphone, make it attractive. Simple, intuitive, short cycle and logical to find, register and derive initial functional value from the e-service/product. Obviously make sure it’s visibly secure.

·         Where am I?, Confirm at every key stage of the engagement process on line and by email/txt what progress has been made, what benefits can be derived, and what the next step for them is to derive additional value.

·         Profile: Maintaining appropriate and compliant personal data monitoring records, profile how individuals and groups are using the on line service in order that future interactions can be customised for them to derive additional value and benefits and for you to secure additional revenues.

·         Build a dialog: Start and maintain conversations with your users on topics they are interested in, offer advice and incentives so they can derive more value from being a registered user and customer.

·         Create dependencies: In the customers engagement with the services/products deliver such value and emotional commitment that it makes it hard for them to leave, ideally it’s better for them to stay and develop using your online product/service versus the cost and disruption to move to a competing or alternative product or service.