FOB3 will bring a number of smaller improvements to the app as we know it now, but will also extend the functionality in four directions, each of which will make the software more usable, and useful, and put more distance between us and any other software out there.

New labeling

We’re changing some of the words we use as labels to make the app more friendly and moving some around to simplify the appearance.

New Dashboard External Links panel

In the Dashboard sidebar we’re including a new section for “external links” where you’ll be able to add links to other sites you use regularly. These links will open in new tabs so you’ll be able to switch between sites just by clicking tabs. This feature will make Dashboard your “window” to the Internet.

For a sneak preview click this link

New Collaboration

Soon you’ll be able to truly collaborate with other Front Office Box users. This new feature allows the sharing of plans between different FOB’s.

For a sneak preview click this link

Tip, click the SHARE button at the top of the page to see how the invitation to Share will work.

New Project Milestones

We’re now including Milestones within the Opportunity (Plan) pages. From now on you’ll be able to lay out a series of milestones for each Plan then assign actions within each milestone. Milestones will be the basis of the new sales pipeline reporting, calculating risk and probability. They’ll also be the basis of project progress reporting at some point in the future.

For a sneak preview click this link

The two loitered amongst the leather jackets. They were planning on starting a custom development business and generally discussing opportunities and challenges. “The question is” said Gareth “what happens when the cost of software drops to zero?”.

Gareth’s a recognized expert in Agile Development. Steve’s been selling Enterprise Software for twenty years. The conclusion they came to was ultimately people would get rewarded in some way for using software. The big software vendors would go broke without those $billions revenues. Their place would be taken by a new breed of service providers offering utility processing. The point of competition would move from the distribution channel to ease of use, rapidly followed by value add - business best practice “built in”.

By this point the new software service providers would be making their money in other ways, exploiting ownership of the network. New entrants would build on the model but compete based on sharing the value of the network with the people contributing to it - the users. Ultimately the users take over the reins. They decide what the software as a service does, and how. They decide how the network gets exploited and who by. The service provider ends up as coordinator for the network and the “brand” which disintermediates all the other brands, driving established goods and services providers to the commodity level.

Two years ago this seemed close to heresy, but today we’re surrounded by examples of this progression accelerating. It’s in social media for the moment, but will quickly spread to the business sector, starting with the smaller businesses.

The conversation moved on to how the two might combine skills to get in front off, and ultimately catch this wave.

The first issue was finding some clear blue water in amongst all the business software. The space had to offer some potential as a market prior to the emergence of the value in the network. This would be where the new software would get traction and put down some roots. The decision was Sales Management.

Enter the first fundamental principle. Traditional software competed in features which met all of somebody’s needs. These features result in the complexity we’re all familiar with, in software at least. This new software would meet some of everybody’s needs and provide flexibility to accommodate the unique requirements. Taking out the complexity dramatically reduces the cost, and makes the software easier to use.

The second issue was finding a market segment. Choosing the small business segment wasn’t hard. The new software could never compete head on with the enterprise vendors. Sales Management was something most businesses could use some help with. It had a chance of adding real value to users quickly, and it was something Steve knew a lot about.

The third issue was the technology platform. It had to be hosted on the Internet of course. Gareth’s knowledge of languages and database systems made that decision easy. Ruby on Rails was the new thing. Community software developed by programmers as they used it. Extraordinary productivity, continuing development and “free” ROR was the technology of choice for the new generation of developers. With a combination of Agile Development techniques and ROR, the first iteration of the software was up and running within two weeks.

Enter the second fundamental principle - permanent Beta. The software would continue to evolve. With permanent Beta users could experience the real benefits of Agile - if the software doesn’t do what you want, change it.

The fourth issue was finding users to dictate what the software would do, and how. It would be used in their own business, but the two needed some external users to validate their thinking. Paul was a friend of long standing, a veteran in the insurance business, a technology novice, and best of all needed some help. He was managing an industry insurance program and floundering under the weight of lists, notes, documents and emails.

Paul started using the software and over the next six months contributed ideas about functionality to add, based on his particular needs. The focus for the application changed during this period. It turned out Paul wasn’t just using the software for sales management, he was using it for everything. From his strategic planning to his air miles program, everything he wanted to do in his business was in the software. On his own he’d refined a workflow that’s now at the heart of how the software works.

Here comes the the third fundamental - users know much more about how software adds value than the people who build it.

The fifth issue was resources. There would be no money to pay for offices and staff and the two didn’t have the skills, or time, to make the software “market ready”. It had to be ultra friendly, look gorgeous, and give 24*365 reliabiliy. The answer was partnerships with hosting, design and development businesses. Partnerships with the very best people to guarantee the very best software as a service.

This is where our fourth fundamental principle takes center stage. This concept is so challenging to conventional thinking nobody’s ever going to believe it’s right. To make sure it has the opportunity to mature, the business has to be constrained within its own resources - no outside equity, no debt and fixed cost close to zero.

The sixth issue was creating the network. At this point a detailed understanding of user behavior is crucial. With a combination of social media participation, direct invites and paid search the number of users climbed toward critical mass. Naturally enough it transpired some people never used it. Others enjoyed the benefits and yet more recommended it to partners and friends but few understood the opportunity of participating in the network.

That’s where we are now guys - join in and give us a hand to build the community so we can make everybody more successful.

A couple of months ago somebody dragged me in to another one of these new Internet based services.  To be honest I couldn’t see any “real world” as opposed to “social time wasting” use for it.  The main page talks about microblogging and “what are you doing?” type applications and I was already swamped by email and fed up with being invited to a host of networking platforms.

The other day Marc, of http://www.redlinesoftware.com/ , who tends to be my coach in things like this, suggested Twitter might be an interesting tool for publishing information to Front Office Box users.

Taking another look really didn’t change my opinion, but having exchanged a couple of “tweets” with Marc and Ian at http://www.wecando.biz/ something started to dawn.

Watching a video presentation on social media marketing I listened to a business leader explaining the best way to contact him was via Twitter.  He never answered the phone to blank caller IDs and rarely read his email. All communication with his network was through Twitter.

Maybe there is something there, after all.

Digging deeper into the help files and settings several interesting functions reveal themselves.

• The standard format for Twitter is the user makes micro (max 140 character) posts - tweets - to his/her page.  Other Twitter users have the option to “follow” people of their choice, in this way they get to display other people’s posts on their own page.
• A typical tweet is published to the entire world, with followers picking them up in the usual publish/subscribe model, but there are variations with the possibility to reply to a tweet and also to send direct messages to individuals.
• All of this is web page based but the app really comes into its own when phones are enabled.  Now the tweets, replies and messages are all sent via SMS to and from authorized devices.  This gives us publish/subscribe using SMS, anywhere there’s a cell phone connection, plus reply and direct message. 
  
• Apple iPhone users also have the option to instal Twitterific, a downloadable app that simplifies the view, post, answer and message functions.
• The option that transforms this “social time wasting” tool into a genuine business application is the ability for broadcasters to restrict followers to people they want to receive the messages.
• For added value Twitterific also uses GPS and Google maps to publish the location of the device.
  

So it transpires Twitter really can be used as an internal communication’s tool for businesses, projects, teams, or networks - from anywhere to anywhere.

It’s as easy to use as SMS, it broadcasts to authorized subscribers, there’s an audit trail of messages.

Of course best of all it’s free, although if you use the SMS device updates there’s the per message charge from the carrier.  My plan includes 500 messages per month that I never use, so I don’t care

If you want to give it a try register for an account and “follow” or message me at user name frontofficebox

Here’s the conspiracy theory - Corporate Managers and Software Vendors conspire to control what the rest of us do, and keep themselves in high pay, low value add jobs in the process.  This isn’t just me on a hobby horse here.  In “Blue Ocean Strategy” Kim and Mauborgne attribute SAP’s success to its’ strategy of persuading corporate buyers that users shouldn’t be allowed to choose software - they don’t know what they need.

Like all conspiracies, this one is doomed to fail, for two reasons.

First - we’re seeing corporate organizations disintegrate, with more and more people leaving to do their own thing, or not joining in the first place. 

Leading the way are the “baby boomers”.  They aren’t leaving the companies through choice, mostly.  They’re being thrown out to make room for the next generation of ladder climbers.  But they need, and want, to work so they’re starting their own businesses, and often selling their services back to former employers as consultants.

Closely following are the “Moms” who’ve stayed home to bring up families and now want to work.  They just don’t want the inflexibility of corporate life, so they’re setting up their own businesses, based on skills developed during past employment.

The third group is “don’t commute, compute” group.  These Gen Yers leave school and go straight to self employment.  They exploit their technology skills and experience gained in social networking to create entirely new business propositions.

All of these people are now outside of corporate management structures and are never going to use the standard “command and control” software produced by the industry.

Second - virtually all of the advances in software nowadays are made outside of traditional software companies.  Vendors like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft are too busy trying to turn back the tide to take on Google, Yahoo, Facebook, You Tube, Technorati, and a thousand more.  They’re too busy trying to protect their bloated cost structures and ecosystems.  These “battleships” can’t turn to compete with non-software businesses who use software to offer outstanding value, in new services.

As these two phenomena converge, more people are using the new services to do things their own way, and fewer are using software to do things the management’s way.  Software vendor products just don’t work for them.

As individual, or groups of, entrepreneurs, they don’t want to be controlled, and certainly won’t be commanded. Just like the entrepreneurs before the steam engine, they’re capable, productive and flexible. They combine these traits in outstanding customer service and value.  Traditional software won’t help them do that.  It just gets in the way.  Systems that collect, consolidate and report information are no use to small businesses. 

What they want is systems that “enable” them - tools to organize, plan, schedule, collaborate and share.  They want systems that are flexible, to let the competitive advantage shine through.  They want systems that are intuitive, so there’s no need to lose time “training”.  They want good business practice “built in” as value add.  They want to do complex things, but simply, so they can focus on customer service.  Most of all they want this for free, or close to it.

It sounds as if they’re asking for a lot, and of course they are, with good reason.  They’re being educated by the market in the art of the possible.  What could be more “complexity made simple” than Google Search?  What could be more intuitive than Facebook?  What could be more collaborative than Wikipedia? What could be more flexible than Twitter?  What could be more free than Yahoo Mail?

Front Office Box addresses the needs of these new entrepreneurs.  It’s designed NOT to be like traditional software products.  It doesn’t have un-necessary features that get in the way.  It’s easy to use, because we thought about how people would use it, and built that in.  It’s “something for everybody” software as a service, because that’s the way we achieve outstanding value add.

Most of all it’s different because, almost uniquely in terms of business software, it’s used every day by the people who build it.

Software vendors - your days are numbered - please take Accounting, ERP, SCM, CRM and all the other garbage software with you.

“Well, actually, I have” came across the room in a sort of embarrassed way.

“Which deal?” asked the branch manager in a sort of threatening manner.

“Commercial Ignition” replied the sales guy, quietly.

Instead of offering congratulations the branch manager asked “Why wasn’t that in the forecast?”

This sales guy had been here before.  ” I didn’t think I was going to get it.”

The branch manager slunk away back to his office, and everybody in the office had a quiet grin.  There would be pints in the pub at lunch time.

Nice little story, and true as it happens, but that isn’t the point of this post.  The point we want to discuss is CRM systems fail more often than any other IT project, and they fail because they attempt to control the uncontrollable.

Sales guys understand they’re only as good as their next sale.  Managers, administrators and support people all resent sales guys -they get more elbow room and earn more money.  The only thing that keeps them in a job is numbers - feeding the rest of the organization.  Sales is the ultimate “hero to zero” role in most corporations. Sales guys don’t play the same game as all the others.

This breeds a certain independence, and arrogance.  We’re going to get fired if we don’t make the number so why should we play the game with all the paper pushers?  Filling in all the forms in the world won’t save us if the numbers are bad.

When the bean counters (accountants and IT people) try to put in systems that control the sales guys they are doomed to fail.  CRM systems are designed to measure activity and progress, and forecast revenue for the accountants.  Not to help sales guys do their job.  So these systems are a nuisance, and, at the best, only get lip service.

Every sale is a unique coming together of customer, requirements, vendor, capabilities, and the man in the middle’s ability to align them in a sort of optimum result for everybody involved.  Ultimately, the whole organization lives off the sales guy’s ability to make this make sense to the customer.

Instead of CRM, the process and systems people need to give the sales guys stuff that helps, not stuff that gets in the way.  That’s why we built our software, and why it works the way it does.

Due credit for this phrase goes to Brian Bieler who I came across at Salesgravy

To start with the phrase just made me smile, like one of those oxymorons, but then two thoughts struck me.

Confession time - I’ve never been any good at that Time Management stuff.  It just never really struck a chord for me.  Priorities have always been what counted.  Now at least there’s some justification for what will have seemed to my bosses to be a lack of discipline on my part.

From time to time we get asked why we don’t have a calendar in Front Office Box.  There’s never really been a  simple respectful way of saying “because I don’t like the idea, and don’t like calendars”.

Brian’s post has helped me understand my own thinking.  It’s the priorities that count, and the schedule needs to be made to accommodate them.  No priorities today? We’ll go golfing then

Closely related is the best business content forum I’ve come across. The people posting at Salesgravy are real players with interesting things to say about just anything - well worth a visit (and the joining fee).

”

Both sides of the business software market struggle with the same issue - trying to build, or buy, standard package software offering economies of scale whilst perfectly fitting the business requirements. Anybody who stops to think will quickly see this is an issue that can never be resolved.

Sounds easy enough! All realtors work the same way don’t they, for example. No they don’t, actually. They all have their own competitive advantage built in to the way they operate. They all have their own relationships with clients and partners.

What happens when they use the same software as everybody else? They just operate like everybody else. Goodbye competitive advantage.

So how can anybody build software for realtors. They can’t. They can just build software for 80% of realtors’ needs and let the users figure out the rest for themselves.

They could build their own “business solution”.

How much more efficient would it be if realtors could get software which let them figure it all out for themselves. If the software provided only “business” best practice in generic processes and data management. Then they could use it in ways that make sense to them. And they could benefit from economies of scale, by sharing the development cost with all the other businesses who have clients, partners, processes and plans. They could minimize the cost and complexity of implementation, they could get much faster payback on their investment and they could evolve their business model in response to opportunities or competitive pressures.

We might call this “something for everybody” software.

Software like this would be difficult to build. The business process guys would have to really understand the generic, best way to stuff. The user experience guys would have to work even harder, making sure everything would be exactly where the user expected to find it.

It might be even harder to sell. Users have been taught, by the industry, to expect to choose between alternative packages, selecting the one most closely fitting the way they manage their business. This software would expect them to understand they can be free to make their own decisions, and change their minds as often as they need.

I recently came across such a software product. It’s being quietly “leaked” out as the company feels it’s way through a marketing model based most on social networking.

For the moment “free” accounts are still available for early adopters who want to contribute to the social networking model.

Anybody wanting to get a preview of the future of business software can get one at Front Office Box.”

You can read Namxas other posts at Namxas