The Attivo Blog

I feel really productive today.  I reduced my emails received for the day to just 5 items that I really need to follow up on.  They are in good company…there with the 16 from the day before, and the 12 from the day before that.  Three days ago was not very productive; some 80 emails remain.  Of course, I probably won’t get to any of them, since tomorrow will come and I’ll be busy again deleting emails or responding to the “emergencies” that appear in my inbox.  In my 30+ years in business, apparently I was never very important until my email started to overflow with things I just HAD to deal with now, or face phone calls (remember them?) with angry people asking why I haven’t responded to their email. Mixed in that morass are 42 seminar invites from associates, jokes from my retired friends and relatives, you know the rest of the stuff that shows up.  At least our Barracuda Spamwall is filtering out the Viagra offers (compliments of Alinco Computers great email hosting). So, here’s some recommendation to solve this all too familiar dilemma: Any other comments and recommendations are welcome!

Stop with the buzzwords and jargon already! We've done enough Business Process Assessments and Value Stream Mapping using Lean techniques with Kaizen Events and Kanban methods to optimize and re-engineer business processes and Throughput Time Efficiency (TTE) to know that NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE HECK I'M TALKING ABOUT!  I get a better response to all of that when I sing to my dog...at least he tilts his head and looks at me. Think about the things that people do in your company day in and day out.  Those are called business processes.  Some people make a product, or perhaps provide a service to customers.  Other support the main activity of the business with necessary back room things like sending out invoices, receiving cash, paying bills, etc.  All of these activities incur costs for the business, which in turn is passed on to the customer in the price that they pay for the goods or services that you sell. Let's pretend that you invite your biggest customer to spend two weeks at your company to really get to know how you do things.  At the end of the two weeks, you give him the opportunity to assess your operation, and tell you what he thinks of the value that you really deliver.  He might say "Your engineers are outstanding, and your quality people really have it dialed in.  But your customer service department...they're doing everything manually, can't find anything, redo things multiple times...take them off my bill, please!" Think your operation could stand that kind of scrutiny?  No?  Then why are YOU putting up with it?  After all, your customer writes small checks compared to the big ones that you stroke every day to fund all that waste. Like a leaky faucet, there are inefficiencies throughout your operation that are being ignored, and are costing you thousands of dollars that you could otherwise keep.  Some leaks are bigger than others, but together, it adds up in a hurry.  That's what a Business Process Assessment uncovers - where the waste is, and where the opportunity for gains in efficiency exist.  It's about doing more with less.  Like getting the job done with one person instead of two.  Welcome to the new economy.  You don't need to use all of the big words that I was throwing around at the beginning to get this right.  It's a lot more common sense than you think, and a lot less painful than an annual physical exam.  Contact us to find out how we lead you through a process assessment...there's a huge benefit waiting for you.  It takes outside leadership to pull this off...or you would have already done it.

Comprehensive Help Technical support has a lot more to do with just an error message on the screen. When it comes to supporting Accounting and ERP systems, when you call for help, the last thing you need to hear is "that's not covered under technical support".  Why not have a support plan that will address all of the day to day needs that come up?   While a support line can't be effective at major implementation efforts, if managed well, it sure can improve your productivity.  At Attivo, we've developed a plan called "Full Value Support".  It not only covers error correction, but all of the "how to" questions, user refresher training, assistance with custom report writing, and other small budget tasks that every company needs.  A quarterly budget is mutually agreed upon for the quarter, and if the entire budget isn't used, the unused portion becomes "rollover minutes". The Customer Portal Makes it Work To keep it as affordable as possible, each customer receives access to a comprehensive online support portal, where all of their system information and documentation is stored.  The portal also provides access to helpful how-to documents, training guides, release notes, etc. to allow as much self-service as possible.  You can also log support requests using the portal, which comes in handy for late-night or non-critical requests, which provides a confirmation email to you, and immediately notifies our entire technical staff as well.  Response Time and Feedback are Critical Response time is critical, since a "system down" condition can't wait.  Regardless, no one should have to waste their time trying to log a support incident or request help.   Call Attivo during business hours, and you get a live person 99% of the time.  I've always said that if you're going to provide support, you should answer the phone!   When an issue takes a little while to resolve (some could take hours, days or even weeks), periodic feedback is provided to update status on the issue.  This lets you know that we haven't forgotten about your issue.  Not every issue gets resolved on the spot, and status is often equally important as resolution. Not getting this kind of support from your provider?  Show them this blog post.  Let them know that you have alternatives!