Erich Stauffer

Category: Technology

  • Change Management

    Change control within is a formal process used to ensure that changes to a product or system are introduced in a controlled and coordinated manner. It reduces the possibility that unnecessary changes will be introduced to a system without forethought, introducing faults into the system or undoing changes made by other users of software. The goals of a change control procedure usually include minimal disruption to services, reduction in back-out activities, and cost-effective utilization of resources involved in implementing change. Change control is a major aspect of the broader discipline of change management.

    The following is an example of a change control process:

    Minimize Disruption

    • Work during off or down time.
    • Test changes first (if possible) and/or roll out to limited group first.
    • Notify users who will be affected and/or front-line staff.

    Reduce Any “Back-out” Time Activities

    • Create/save back-ups of any files changed.
    • Record what files are being changed any configuration changes to settings or within files.

    Efficient Utilization of Employees

    • Empower affected users and/or front-line staff to give feedback on any issues and/or improvements.
    • Have the most experienced person with the system make the changes.

    Review Process

    Before

    • Why is the change being made?
    • Is the change approved? By who?

    After

    • What was the effect? Was it the desired outcome or something different?
    • Do we need to roll back the changes?

    Report Process

    • What metrics to report?
    • Report to who?
    • How often to report?
    • Suggest or ask for needed or wanted changes.

  • Business Process Management

    Business Process Management (BPM) is a field of management focused on aligning organizations with the wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. Business process management attempts to improve processes continuously.

    A business process is “a collection of related, structured activities that produce a service or product that meet the needs of a client.” These processes are critical to any organization as they generate revenue and often represent a significant proportion of costs. As a managerial approach, BPM considers processes to be strategic assets of an organization that must be understood, managed, and improved to deliver value added products and services to clients. This approach can be supported, or enabled, through technology to ensure the viability of the managerial approach in times of stress and change.

    BPM enables business to respond to changing consumer, market, and regulatory demands faster than competitors – creating competitive advantage. Erich Stauffer practices business process management.

  • Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010

    As a fellow business owner I can understand that it’s been a wild ride over the last couple of years.  Since I created Erich Stauffer back in 2007 we have seen markets rise and fall, businesses start and fail, and entire economies collapse.  Next year promises more of the same, or worse, but we have reason for hope.  There will always be a place for the kind of business owner that adds value to each customer interaction because people will always have needs to be met.  Meeting customer’s needs and exceeding their expectations no matter what happens will continue to pay dividends despite the economy.

    We have gone through several changes since 2007. We added more services as our customers have asked for them, such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, and traditional advertising assistance in addition to our original web design and development services.  Jason Cobb, Chris Hendrickson, and most recently my wife, Suzanne Stauffer, have all worked hard to serve our customers since 2007.

    Jason Cobb and Chris Hendrickson have served as executive and sales managers, respectively, but will both be transitioning into sales support role part-time as they take on new roles in other endeavors.  Because of Suzanne’s work over the last year I have promoted her to Marketing Director and Vice President of the company, while I am remaining as CEO. In this role I lead and guide the direction of the company.

    I want to personally thank you for your business over the last year and together look forward to not as things are, but as they could be.

  • Chrome OS is Finally Here, Sort Of

    Chrome OS is really cool until you find out that Chrome OS has to run on proprietary hardware.  What?

    As WebProNews said, “The biggest news in tech and business that wasn’t related to Wikileaks this week.”  On Google’s official blog, CEO, Eric Schmidt boldly announced that Chrome OS was “something computer scientists have been dreaming about for a very, very long time…The kind of magic that we could imagine 20 years ago, but couldn’t make real because we lacked the technology,”  and in an even grander tone predicted that, “In 20 years time, I’m certain that when we look back at history it will be clear that this was absolutely the right time to build these products, because they work—and they work at scale—I’m confident that they’ll go on to great success. Welcome to the latest chapter of an epic journey in computing. Welcome to Chrome OS.”

    Welcome to Chrome OS

    While Chrome OS is the ‘operating system in the cloud’, devices running it surprisingly don’t require that you’re always online. Most webapps are completely capable of running offline, but you always have the option of enabling a cellular data service that’s built-in to the device. Service is available from Verizon and you get 100MB of free data every month for two years. Similar to Apple iPad’s agreement with AT&T, there are no contracts for use and plans start at $10/month.

    Some standard apps include the normal Google faire (Google Reader for RSS, Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, Youtube, and the Chrome Store), but also NPR, the New York Times, and a Notepad program.  If Chrome OS Apps are anything like the ones currently available for the Chrome browser in the Chrome Web Store, some ‘apps’ may be no more than downloadable bookmarks (favorites for those IE users left in the crowd).

    Back to Business

    Microsoft may finally have to worry.  I say that specifically about the Citrix offering.  You know corporate buyers will love a simple OS that runs on lean (read: cheap) hardware and that will run Citrix desktop programs (virtual desktops, applications and business services on any device).  This is all possible due to the built-in

    Citrix Receiver, which allows organizations to manage the proliferation of new devices entering the workplace by providing secure, high-performance delivery of virtual desktops and Windows, web and SaaS applications on any user device.

    According to Citrix’s website, the receiver, “Gives today’s increasingly mobile workforce fast, simple and on – demand access to virtual desktops, enterprise applications and IT services from any device they choose by:

    • Enabling the delivery of business applications to any user on any device
    • Ensuring secure access and complete IT control and visibility
    • Allowing users simple, self-service access to Windows, web and SaaS applications”

    So will you use it? The real question is: why wouldn’t you?

  • How to Build a Mini-Site Around a Micro-Niche in 10 Steps

    Mini-sites are web sites setup to cover very specific things (micro-niches) and are not usually updated, or at least not updated that often. A mini-site that is updated often stops being a mini-site and becomes a blog. Mini-sites usually answer a question, act as a guide, or help filter information to help searchers find answers about a particular micro-niche. A micro-niche is simply defined as a smaller, sub-section of a niche that together with other niches make up a market, which together with other markets make up an economy.

    Mini-sites provide value for both the visitor and the vendor. Sometimes it is hard to find what you need online because the niche is so small that no one has thought to gather the information together before into a micro-niche. When you do that in the form of a mini-site you add value to the visitor and in return get value in the form of ad clicks or affiliate purchases. Think of it as organizing the web into specialty areas that provide the content that search engines need and you see how building mini-sites can be a very noble endeavor.

    Below is a Checklist for How to Get Started Making Money Online in 10 Steps:

    1. Decide which Affiliate program you want to use (Clickbank, CommissionJunction, Paydotcom, Amazon, or LinkShare, for example) and register.  You may need to have a website first (chicken and egg, I know), but you can get a blog for free at Blogspot.com or Tumblr.com to get started.  If you already have a web site, make sure it has some content.
    2. Browse around their respective marketplace and look for 5-10 products which look interesting to you, but that are hard to find. For example, if you joined Amazon Associates, browse Amazon to find 5-10 products that interest you, but but that you could add more information to, group, or sort differently to help people find them easier.
    3. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find keywords (key phrases) that advertisers are purchasing which receive between 1,500 and 20,000 exact searches per month.  The difference between ‘exact’ and ‘broad’ is that exact has to occur in order as if in quotes, but broad can have the keyword out of order.  Run competition tests on each of the keywords you find. If there is a page or web site in Google ranking in the top 5 results with less than 100 backlinks, then it’s generally a good keyphrase to go for.  Otherwise, keep looking until you find some.
    4. Go to Bing and search for link:www.site.com –site www.site.com to view backlinks from other sites to that site (replace ‘site’ with the actual web address).  Google hides their backlinks, but you can find out more detailed information on your site by using Google’s Webmaster Tools.  However this doesn’t help while researching other people’s web sites. If your competition has more than 5 homepage results or more backlinks than you are willing to spend the time and money to compete with, then start over at the top of this checklist.
    5. Decide on a final keyword (just one) that you want to go with. If a lot of them are similar in statistics, just pick the one you know the most about and make this the title of your web site and home page.
    6. Purchase a domain that is very relevant to your keyword and/or includes your keyword(s).  A keyword-relevant domain with good content and backlinks will toast the competition based on Google’s current algorithm setup.
    7. Make sure your site has at least 4-5 pages of relevant, unique content with at least 400 words per page.  Add at least one picture to each page to help with promotion later and to get traffic from Google Image Search.
    8. Install Google Analytics so that you can track how many visitors your site is receiving and see where they are coming from.  This will help you measure success and help you decide when and if to change things up.
    9. Design or purchase a theme for your web site and install it.  This should be done after writing content because content is more important than design.  Let me repeat that.  Content is more important than design.  Yes, design can affect the helpfulness and value of your site, but it is far too easy to get caught up tweaking a web site for weeks before a single post has been written.  Don’t fall into this trap.  Save the design work for after the content and before the promotion period.
    10. Its time to promote your web site.  Submit to search engines, find relevant forums that contain signatures and get involved, find relevant blogs to comment on, and consider writing articles for submission to other web sites.  It’s all about creating backlinks to your site from areas relevant to your keywords.  Keep working on building backlinks until you rank in the top 5 results on Google and you are receiving at least 200 visitors per day.  Only then should you tweak your design to help increase revenue.

    Now go make some money online!

  • Twitter API Not Available – Twitter Over Capacity

    Twitter is over capacity. Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again

    I use both Tweetdeck and Twitter itself to post messages, or tweets, to update both my account, the accounts of my businesses and brands, and the accounts of my customers.  It’s really frustrating when the Twitter API (the connection between third-party programs like Tweetdeck and Twitter) and/or the website is unavailable.  I’ve somewhat learned the times when Twitter is most busy and tried to avoid these times, but this is a trade off.  Because of the way Twitter works, you have to be kind of “in the moment” to matter.  Yes, followers can go back and look at old tweets, but for the most part, they are only looking at their current stream and if you aren’t in it when they are, they don’t see you.

    Why is Twitter so Overloaded All the Time?

    Twitter has become the SMS of the Internet. Because of its restricted 140 characters per post, It has become the hottest thing in social networking. Every one from big companies, to  CEO’s to teens uses Twitter. The more popular the site becomes the more load there is on the servers and the software running on that server.  The original code used to run Twitter, Ruby on Rails, didn’t scale well, but that has been in the process of being fixed for a while now.  The issue now may be the simple lack of available servers.  However, the new Twitter interface seems to be more available than the old one which could indicate that the new profiles are running on both new software and new hardware platforms.

    Graph of Twitter Usage Throughout the Day

  • Google Set to Launch Chrome App Store

    Google to Launch Chrome App Store in Time for HTC Tablet in November

    Google plans to launch its Chrome App Store in October, Google executives told a German Gamescom audience in Germany this week in August. This store will essentially be Google’s iTunes, supporting devices like the HTC Tablet running Chrome OS, due out in November.

    The HTC device is said to have a relationship with Verizon.  This is critical as most of the ‘big iron’ in the tablet will be in the cloud and apps may not be able to run without being connected to the Internet.  Questions remain on whether or not there will be caps on the data plans like AT&T did to iPhone users, but this may be the new normal.

    Again, like Apple, Google will be opening up the opportunity for developers to write programs and apps for Chrome and Chrome OS in exchange for a cut of each sale, rumored to be at 5%. The app store would be available to users of its Chrome browser and the Chrome OS, which means the potential market is much bigger than just tablet PC users running the Chrome OS as Chrome can be ran on any computer.  It will be interesting to see both how the store performs and how people like using mobile devices that only work when connected to the Internet, ala cloud computing-style.  I personally use a HTC Droid, which mostly only works when connected, so maybe it will be okay.

  • Facebook Buys Chai Labs’ for Semantic Search Technology

    Facebook has acquired online search company Chai Labs for $10 million

    As Facebook vies to compete with Google and expand it’s search functionality from searching Facebook.com to searching the world wide web, it has looked to a vertically focused company steeped in Internet glory including Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman, and Google Ventures general partner Joe Kraus who are all investors and/or advisors at Chai Labs.

    Chai Labs specializes in a technology it calls “Semantic Search,” which “uses proprietary crawling, artificial intelligence and data mining technologies to analyze and extract insights from millions of real-time data points across the web,” according to the company’s website. The “Semantic Web” is a term coined by World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, which is a, “New form of Web content that is meaningful to computers.” The semantic web is gaining momentum as HTML5 includes more support for it.

    So what does Facebook want with the semantic web?

    Unlike when it has aquired online sharing sites like Friendfeed* and ShareGrove or purchased Web-based image-hosting companies like Divvyshot, Facebook’s purchase of Chai Labs does not have an immediately apparent value to users-the value it seems, is to Facebook who may be able to use the semantic functionality to hone search results based on a person’s profile, making results theoretically more accurate. While Facebook does have a built-in search engine that lets users search the entire Internet (which is basically just an embedded Bing engine), many users still use Google or Yahoo for search, but Facebook is trying to change that. While Google is trying to become more like Facebook by creating Orkut, purchasing Jaikut (and then abandoning it), rolling out Wave (and then pulling it back), and now Buzz (and possibly a Buzz/Wave combo called Google Me), Facebook is trying to become more like Google.  Why?

    Follow the Money

    Search engines and social networks both make money by selling ads and they are successful at doing so because ads are displayed to the users most likely to click on them (and purchase the product or service).  How they are able to do this has everything to do with the purchase of Chai Labs.  The more targeted search results are, the more likely users will find ads relevant, and the more likely users are to click, which makes Google and Facebook gobs of cash.  While Google makes some money from Google Apps customers, the majority of their revenue is from ad sales and Facebook wants a piece of that pie.  This is all part of the recipe.

    *FriendFeed’s executive team included Paul Buchheit, creator and lead developer of Google Gmail, and Bret Taylor, who was responsible for the launch of Google Maps. Taylor is now chief technology officer of Facebook.

  • What if Microsoft Bob Was Released Today as Microsoft’s Social Network

    I am one of the 58,000 Microsoft Bob users from 1995 and to celebrate 15 years I thought I’d write a fake news article imagining what Bob would be like today if released as a social network.

    Microsoft Announces ‘Bob’ Social Network Based on Microsoft Bob
    Could this be a Facebook killer?

    Microsoft Bob, the toy operating system within an operating system, which debuted in 1995, is now back in a big way as a new social network. Although revolutionary at the time, the three dimensional software that let you store and retrieve files from an actual file cabinet in a virtual office room is regarded as one of the worst applications ever made after Windows ME. But this version of Bob hopes to change that perception and get back to Microsoft’s original interpretation of Neil Stephenson’s Metaverse by taking the house, rooms, and avatar to a new level. In the same way that you got to your PC’s desktop in Bob .’95, at Bob.com PCs are used like widgets to display RSS feeds or Facebook. In Facebook terms, your profile is your house in Bob. When someone is “viewing your profile” on Bob you will see their avatar in your house if you are logged in and there too.

    How is this different than Second Life?

    In Second Life there is a virtual world that you explore and create things like houses in. In Bob, the world is created by you building a house, liking a band, or following a friend. Each time you add something to Bob it gets a physical place in your virtual Bob world. Each user’s world will look different un layout, but the content of each unit will be the same to all users. For example, if you want to live next door to Ace Freely and he agrees to be your friend, his house would be next to yours, but from his perspective, your house may be blocks from his in his Bob world.

    Integration

    Because Microsoft is involved expect to be able to integrate pictures and files from your PC in Bob, which will use Azure and will enable sharing and collaborations much like the Microsoft / Facebook project, Docs.com. Also Bing search and maps will be used. Expect Bing local search to be heavily promoted as businesses get on board and begin joining. Unlike Facebook, expect to be able to buy things from shops you have added to your network.

    Summary and Analysis

    In the same way we didn’t need a layer on top of Windows 95 to use Windows 95 I’m not sure we need an Internet world layered on top of our existing Internet, but it would be nice to hang out with other friends in their avatar forms in some sweet man cave I built in my FRIGGIN mansion on Bob.