Coffee Max Effgen, March 20, 2009 When I first moved to Seattle, I could not tell the difference between an espresso and freeze dried Taster’s Choice. That changed in a hurry. I now have a strong regular habit. I even brought a Starbucks Barista® Espresso Machine into the office of a former employer to slow my… Continue Reading
It is not about the technology… Max Effgen, March 20, 2009 Customers Want Productivity, Not Products Solid article by Jessica Tsai detailing the recent Microsoft Convergence conference. I have always has success tying productivity solutions to technology, so that customers are now vocalizing this need does not come as a surprise. Continue Reading
A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing Max Effgen, March 18, 2009 Above the Clouds Worth reading this engrossing whitepaper from the UC Berkeley Reliable Adaptive Distributed Systems Laboratory on Cloud Computing. Continue Reading
“Mojo” Reads Max Effgen, March 17, 2009 I have had a lot of conversations with very talented people that seem lost in this new economic reality. Understandably many are upset about their respective employment situations; however, as a whole they seem to be forgetting what has made them great. Here are some recommended reads for some positive… Continue Reading
Integration requirements for CRM, CTI Max Effgen, March 16, 2009 CTI integration with CRM systems is typically limited to Sales and Support offerings. Since phone systems change less often than other pieces of technology, these integrations have been “set and forget” when properly scoped. I have clients that have not touched the CTI integrations of deployments ever. These integrations are… Continue Reading
Weekend Max Effgen, March 14, 2009 Looks like a wet, some say typical, weekend in Seattle. Likely take in some St Patrick’s Day festivities and get tickets for the Mariner’s Opening Day. Stay dry. Continue Reading
Interesting read on competing clouds Max Effgen, March 13, 2009 Amazon, Microsoft improve their cloud computing game Interesting read on AWS and Azure offerings. No surprise that Microsoft is offering SQL Server. One thought though is how many less sophisticated organizations run much of their business on Excel or Access. Is this really going to attract those customers? The AWS… Continue Reading
Amazon AWS getting serious about the enterprise? Max Effgen, March 12, 2009 Amazon EC2 Introduces Reserved Instances This is a great pricing model for budgets that have the “use it or lose it” money. It might entice enterprises to try the service without the recurring payments and unexpected fees that many “As A Service” providers use. Full disclosure: The wife works at… Continue Reading
Doing more with less Max Effgen, March 12, 2009 Increases in customers means increases in customer support. An effective tactic when starting a self-service initiative is to reassure Customer Support that the organization has to do more with less. Not less people, more support with the same number of people. During the bubble, it was because businesses would not… Continue Reading
More on Self-Service Max Effgen, March 11, 2009 If there is one constant driver for customer service, it is contact reduction. Every customer service group wants less contacts. Rarely is the solution obvious and customer service representatives (CSR) in good times and bad always seem fearful of their jobs. The idea or notion of self-service to improve the… Continue Reading