The Information Power Hub - the value of information

Who would have believed 10-15 years ago that we would have such a vast array of information available to us at the touch of our fingers? We no longer need to step outside our doors to read a book or research data (does anyone still use a traditional library?); to shop: from high street stores to Amazon and eBay; Social Media: FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Google+; to find information: Google, Bing, Wikipedia, etc. 
 

Look at how fast Facebook has grown and how much it is now floating for – in the region of $100m – purely on the strength of the information it holds on users – their location, ages, likes and the power of its advertising. Latest information shows that if Facebook were a country it would have the highest population in the world!

Without a doubt information is power and without information your business cannot run –information on customers, suppliers and staff is exceedingly valuable. Many organisations still haven’t caught onto this fact - they would be more, efficient and effective if their information was available instantly. How much time could your business free up if you enabled staff and customers to access their key data at a touch of their fingers – how many more satisfied customers would you have?

Information is still stored in filing cabinets, spreadsheets, Word documents and obscure databases – all of which are out of date as soon as they are produced.

What do I mean by company data – well an example is a company that appears to have a diverse set of information or requirements such as a spreadsheet of contacts, they also have 1000s of images, their website needs updating and they need some short videos produced and published on the internet of various types.

Management may not realise that all of these items are “data” related and can be managed through data cleansing and centralisation.

1. Spreadsheet data can be cleansed and transferred into a central Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enable tracking of contact information and to make sure the data is not duplicated through the creation of multiple spreadsheets. The CRM can be linked to a mailing provider and used to market to and collect information from stakeholders, clients and potential clients.
2. Images can be categorised, sorted and stored in a central database and retrieval made easy through the implementation of metadata. Images from the central library can be easily sourced for the website or any other marketing campaign online or off.
3. The website is a source of data for the CRM; subscriptions to mailings, requests for information, surveys etc and people can disengage from mailings automatically too. Using a CRM linked to the website data is kept up to date automatically.
4. The video production is for short films to be added to the website, but the video itself can be stored in the image database which makes it easier to find and use for any publication/promotion purpose. 
5. By using a portal (access point) customers can also see and manage their own accounts (look at Amazon and Bay)

As you can see once information is centralised it becomes more effective, efficient, saves you time and therefore money. Information is the power hub of your business – use it wisely.

For more information on how centralised data can help you give me a call 01732 848374 or email: dawn@dawnrussell.org.uk

How do you get staff onboard with change?

Instilling change within a business is always challenging - you may have people that are reluctant to change and others that welcome it with open arms. The challenge you face is to bring on board those people who are reluctant and this may be the fact that the work "has always been done that way", "why challenge the status quo" and there may also be a fear of redundancy.

To mitigate some of the negativity that is created through change ask some of those people who are may be feeling disenfranchised / disenchanted to be part of the change process (ask them to be part of the team) show them the benefits of the changes that are going to be implemented ask them to help you map processes (the "as is" as well as "the future") - they in turn will see where the project/programme is going and the benefits that it is going to reap. How it may free up their time from bureaucracy to work on more important aspects of their role.  And very importantly don't try to railroad or bully - you will just have barriers put in your way.

The people that you bring on board can then become the ambassadors for their areas of the business and take back to their teams/departments what they have learned from being part of the team and promote the benefits and positive aspects of the change.

As ambassadors people feel involved and have a “can do” attitude, they can feed back concerns that team members may have which can be addressed as soon as they arise so that they do not fester, become rumours and then obstacles that cannot be overcome.

The greatest challenge of any project is the buy in from the stakeholders – the people within the business are your greatest asset - they know the business intimately if you manage their expectations (and your own) your project will be a success.