Erich Stauffer

Blog

  • Exposing Hidden Benefits

    Offering Additional Benefits to Your Employees Doesn’t Have to Cost Your Business

    Your company may not be able to offer all of the types of insurance benefits that are available, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them available to your employees. Did you know that there are companies that can offer additional insurance benefits to your employees at no cost to your business? That’s exactly what Ruth Plant does for companies through Colonial Life in Indiana.

    Ruth Plant of Colonial Life
    Ruth has been involved in insurance her entire career. She now runs a team of 25 associates who help companies with benefit enrollment, counseling employees about insurance products, and interfacing with the insurance companies. Through Colonial Life and proprietary online tools like Harmony, the enrollment process is paperless and as pain-free as possible.

    Online tools also allow employees who opt for supplemental benefits to have their own login to check their policies online. One example of a supplemental benefit is called “Hospital Confinement”, which can help pay your hospital deductible should you find yourself hospitalized for any reason. Ruth works with clients on a one-on-one basis and “every client has different needs.”

    “What a lot of people don’t realize is that this service is free to the employer and optional to employees,” Ruth and her team of professional benefit counselors help employers and employees by identifying strategies to ease the pain of the high cost of health insurance. Ruth explained, “We spend about 30 minutes with each employee explaining the benefits the employer provides then helps identify any gaps in their benefit package. My clients depend on me to make sure they won’t run out of money when they need it most.”

    We asked Ruth what she likes to do when she’s not helping companies provide more benefits to their employees and she said she likes to travel. She’s visited her daughter in Germany, but now that she’s moved to Hawaii she can’t wait to visit her there. To have Ruth visit your company to find out how you can offer more benefits to your employees, call 317-244-6600, or email: ruth.plant@coloniallife.com

  • WordPress eCommerce Plugin: Error Detected, Your shopping cart is empty

    If you’re using WP e-Commerce to turn your WordPress website into an online shopping cart, you may have ran into a Paypal error that says, “Error Detected, Your shopping cart is empty.”

    This can happen when you’re trying to pass a required field like “Name” over to Paypal, but it’s blank. Why would it be blank? Because one of the fields in the Product page that Paypal needs to process the order is empty. It can happen when you start to add variations to an item, but you don’t name the variations.

    You need to put in a name in the “Name” field under the “Variations” under each product in the Dashboard. Once you do that, that Name is what is sent to Paypal during the checkout process. It doesn’t work without that.

    You can tell which product have variations by looking at the “Stock” category in the Dashboard > Product page. If the variations are turned on, it will show “0~”, other wise it will show “NA”. Once you go in to edit an individual product, you’ll see a “Variations” module. If the “Sizes” is checked, the “Name” field has to be filled in for it to work.

    All products with variations need the name field filled in, in order to pass that name to Paypal.

    If this doesn’t fix your problem, try one of these references instead:

    http://getshopped.org/forums/topic/paypal-standard-2/
    http://gallery.menalto.com/node/91326
    http://getshopped.org/forums/topic/paypal-shopping-cart-is-empty-error-detected/
    http://quirm.net/forum/topic.php?id=4376
    http://www.webassist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19706
    http://getshopped.org/forums/topic/paypal-error-detected-your-shopping-cart-is-empty/

  • Paid Advertising with Google AdWords

    Google AdWords

    One of the things that can really help get your website traffic fast is paid advertising.

    We recently helped an Indianapolis dentist get started with paid advertising from Google AdWords. We came up with a marketing plan together and created a budget. We were able to use input from the client and data from Google Analytics to know what people had been searching for and finding them in the past. Basically, we wanted to amplify and expedite what the site was already doing well through content marketing and SEO.

    We setup a campaign for the metropolitan area of Indianapolis, funded it with an initial payment, and setup 6 different ads so we could test to see which one was more effective. We plan on revisiting this over the next couple of days to see which ones were more popular and possibly add new ones. The ads usually take a little under a day to start showing up. This is because of an initial approval process by Google and for time for the payment to process.

    Bid Per Call

    One recently new feature (added in 2011) is a bid-per-call feature that allows you to bid for phone calls, in addition to bidding for clicks, when you show Google search ads on computers and tablets. According to Google, both your max bid per click (max CPC bid) and max cost-per-call bid (max CPP bid) can influence your ad’s position on the results page. You can increase your ad position and drive more phone calls to your business by setting a bid that is equal to or greater than the $1 minimum call fee.

    Bid-per-call requires you to use a Google forwarding number when you activate call extensions. It provides detailed call reporting, so you can have a better sense of the value of calls and clicks your campaigns are generating.

    With bid-per-call, the maximum cost-per-call (CPP) and your call Quality Score will be factored into your Ad Rank. This means that you’ll automatically be rewarded with higher ad position and lower cost per call when your phone number is useful to users. And you’ll have increased control over the position of your ads and your call volume by adjusting your bid. As always, you’ll never pay more than you’re willing to for either a phone call or a click.

  • Google+ for Business

    Pages for Google+

    Different people are interested in different parts of your business. Whether it’s breaking news, updates, promotions, links, photos – even talking face-to-face with groups via easy-to-use video chat – Google+ lets you easily share the right things with the right customers. And unlike Facebook, Pages for Google+ can actually help your SEO efforts.

    Google advocates putting the +1 button anywhere you’d like people to be able to recommend your business, products or services to friends and contacts all across the web. Google+ makes it easy to learn more about how your followers’ interactions on your page affect your brand, and your business.

    We’ve been testing Pages for Google+ for a couple of months now. We ran into one instance where we couldn’t add more pages for our customers, but we found that we were just in a waiting period before being able to add more. This is probably a built-in protection against spamming.

    Need help setting up your Google+ Page for your business? We can help.

    About Google+

    Google+, the search giant’s new social network and answer to Facebook features a new friend list function called “circles”, which has been very positive overall. Users have commented that it’s the easiest system on the market for putting friends into groups, making it easier to share posts with just your business colleagues or your family. We are really interested in the circles option, but it needs more people on there so it doesn’t die like Google Buzz. We like the idea of circles and the integrated video chat/hangout function. They’re not really inventing anything new, just putting things like Facebook groups and Skype-like chat front and center. It becomes a more cozy place to hang out online. Facebook will start to look more stuck up and sterile over time, the same way MySpace started to look more trashy.

    We have noticed there are less people requesting to be friends and less friend requests being answered. We think Facebook peaked in 2009 and started to decline after that. But even though numbers are down, they are still number one, for now. It has to do with elasticity, which used in this context means peoples ability to want and except change. In the beginning, when things are new, people are more lenient and will try new things, but over time, ideas harden and change becomes harder. It works with friendships, departments, new businesses, and even social networks. We’ve got high hopes for Google’s inventiveness. The on-demand video chat feature called “Hangouts” is a great idea. Considering it’s 2011, We’re suprised that’s not a feature that we take for granted already.

  • As the iDisk Dust Settles

    According to Computer World, iCloud is Apple’s replacement for MobileMe, but what is/was MobileMe?

    According to Wikipedia, “MobileMe is a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, as iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9, Apple relaunched it as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription service primarily designed for users of Mac OS X. Apple relaunched the service again as MobileMe at WWDC 2008 on July 9, 2008, now targeting Mac OS X, Windows, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch users. On February 24, 2011, Apple discontinued offering MobileMe through its retail stores. The MobileMe retail boxes are also not offered through resellers anymore. Apple is also no longer accepting new subscribers for MobileMe. At the WWDC 2011, on June 6, Apple announced it will launch iCloud in the Northern Hemisphere Autumn 2011, which will replace MobileMe for new users. MobileMe itself will continue to function until June 30, 2012, at which point the service will no longer be available, although users are encouraged to migrate to iCloud before that date.”

    Since iDisk from MobileMe is dead, that leaves services like DropBox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive winners. How does DropBox and SkyDrive differ from Carbonite and Mozy back-up services?

    DropBox and SkyDrive are online storage services, but Carbonite and Mozy are online backups. So what is the difference between online storage and online backups? Automation and availability mostly. With DropBox and SkyDrive, you store files on a one-off basis, just as you would copying files to a flash drive, but with Carbonite and Mozy, you set up plans, syncs, and can file version – meaning you can save multiple versions of a file to capture older vs. later files. Essentially, you could use an online storage service as an online backup service, but it would be more work.

    Read more about Dropbox for business and how it compares to SkyDrive.

  • What is Cloud Computing?

    Is Google Docs Cloud Computing?

    Google Docs is a free (with paid service options): Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs is Google’s “software as a service” office suite. Documents, spreadsheets, presentations can be created with Google Docs, imported through the web interface, or sent via email. Documents can be saved to a user’s local computer in a variety of formats including: (ODF, HTML, PDF, RTF, Text, Microsoft Word). Documents are automatically saved to Google’s servers to prevent data loss, and a revision history is automatically kept. Documents can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes.

    Google Docs serves as a collaborative tool for editing amongst users and non-users in real time. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time. Users can be notified of changes to any specified regions via e-mail. The application supports two ISO standard document formats: OpenDocument (for both opening and exporting) and Office Open XML (for opening only). It also includes support for proprietary formats such as .doc and .xls. Google Docs is one of many cloud computing, document-sharing services like Microsoft Office Live. The majority of document-sharing services require user fees, but Google Docs is free (mostly). Its popularity amongst businesses is growing due to enhanced sharing features, accessibility, and stability (it’s no longer in beta). In addition, Google Docs has enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity among students and educational institutions.

    Is Windows Live Cloud Computing?

    Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, which is part of their “software plus services” platform. While a majority of these services are Web (cloud) applications, accessible from any browser, there are also client-side (binary) applications that require installation on a user’s PC.

    There are three ways in which Windows Live services are offered:

    1. Windows Live Essentials applications – Windows Live Messenger, Windows Mail, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Live Essentials
    2. Web services – Hotmail, SkyDrive, Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Calendar, and Windows Live Devices
    3. Mobile services – Windows Phone Live

    Windows Live is different and separate from Xbox LIVE, which is a multiplayer gaming and content delivery system for Microsoft’s Xbox and Xbox 360 as well as the Games for Windows – LIVE multiplayer gaming service for Microsoft Windows. However, formerly separate, Office Live, (Microsoft Office cloud) services are now part of Windows Live services.

    So is Windows Live actually “cloud computing” like the commercial says? Some of it is and some of it isn’t. Find out more at Windows Cloud.

    Read more on cloud storage solutions from Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft.

  • 5 Ways to Compute Cloud Computing ROI

    The future of IT is in cloud computing, but how do you explain that to the “C” level executives? This model uses two specific business metrics and 5 ways that you can explain the ROI of cloud computing to your boss or to the board:

    • IT capacity – storage (GB or TB), CPU cycles (GHz or THz), network bandwidth (Mbs or Gbs), and/or memory capacity (RAM) a measure of performance.

    • IT utilization – uptime availability (% available per year) and volume of usage (# of requests) as indicators of activity and usability.

    Effective cost/performance ratios and levels of usage activity do not necessarily imply proportional business benefits. They are just indicators of business activity that are not in themselves more valuable than lower operating costs. What is needed instead is a set of business metrics that build on the cloud computing model.

    The following are business metrics that can help translate the indicators from the capacity-utilization curve to direct and indirect benefits to business and examples of how a CAPEX is different than an OPEX in cloud computing:

    1. The speed and rate of change – Cost reduction and cost of adoption/de-adoption is faster in the cloud. Cloud computing creates additional cost transformation benefits by reducing delays in decision costs by adopting pre-built services and a faster rate of transition to new capabilities. This is a common goal for business improvement programs that are lacking resources and skills and that are time sensitive.

    2. Total cost of ownership (TCO) optimization – In cloud computing, users-not just IT-can select, design, configure, and run infrastructure and applications that are best suited for their business needs. Traditionally this has often been strictly in the realm of IT even after projects are handed off to production services, but in cloud computing environments end users are more involved.

    3. Rapid, elastic provisioning for dynamic usage – Resources can be scaled up and down to follow business activity as it expands and grows or is redirected. Provisioning time compression can go from weeks to hours. This service management affects end users and business needs as the scope of functionality and services for users evolve and seek new solutions.

    4. Increased margin and cost control – Revenue growth and cost control opportunities allow companies to pursue new customers and markets for business growth and service improvement. And because it can scale, IT avoids over-and under-provisioning of IT services to allow for smarter business services. This is enhanced capacity utilization, the ability to add and use hardware on-demand without extra hardware or labor costs.

    5. Business process improvement – Cloud computing capabilities can be leveraged through shared services. Users can have access to business capabilities allowing improvement or development of new skills and solutions through cloud sourcing and on demand solutions like Amazon Web Services, Google Apps, IBM Cloud Computing, Microsoft Azure, and HP Cloud Assure.

    These five measures define a new set of business metrics that can be used to create a matrix and dashboard of your current and future operational business and IT service needs relating to your cloud computing potential return on investment.

  • Cloud Storage for Small Businesses

    There are three good options for small businesses wanting to store and share documents in on the Internet in the cloud: Dropbox, Google Apps, and Microsoft’s Office 365, Docs for Facebook, and Windows Live SkyDrive.

    Dropbox

    Simplify your business and boost productivity with the freedom to use the same tools you work with daily. This means you don’t have to switch the programs you use, you just have to switch where you save and open your documents.

    You can share Word documents, Powerpoint slides, and large files easily and securely with colleagues and/or clients. Collaborate across the hall or around the globe and get more work done on the go because your files are always available from Dropbox.

    Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. It even works when you’re offline. You always have your files, whether or not you have a connection. Watch your changes synced instantly across shared folders.

    With easy setup and control you can get started in minutes. Put Dropbox for your business on a single invoice for all of your employees and manage and migrate accounts with admin controls. If someone leaves, you can simply change their permissions online and if someone needs more space, use the admin panel to add more.

    This is the same service trusted by tens of millions of personal users that’s now available for businesses. Enjoy dedicated phone support, bank grade AES-256 bit encryption, and unlimited version history for all your files. This means that you can view previous versions of your files if you need it.

    Plans start at $795 for 5 users, but before you balk at the price think about all of the other hardware and software this one service is replacing. There are no more USB flash drives, external USB backups, taking backups to an off-site location, managing grandfather schemes to keep revisions, or buying expensive file servers. There is one more login account that users will have to manage, but that’s a minor inconvenience for what you’re getting.

    Google Apps

    Google’s web-based messaging and collaboration apps are more than just cloud storage, but they can do that too.

    Google Apps requires no hardware or software and needs minimal administration, creating tremendous time and cost savings for businesses. Google allows email clients like Microsoft Outlook to have POP or IMAP access to email, contacts and calendar so the transition can even be seamless to your employees.

    Each employee gets 25 GB for email storage, so they can keep important messages and find them instantly with built-in Google search. This is higher than what personal Google Mail users get, which is hovering around 8 GB right now. Google Docs lets you store documents in the cloud in a Dropbox-like way, but only 1 GB of storage is included with the plan. More storage can be added as needed for a nominal fee.

    Gmail is designed so employees can spend less time managing their inboxes, and more time being productive. Time-saving features like message threading, message labels, fast message search and powerful spam filtering help employees work efficiently with high volumes of email. It’s spam protection is one of the primary reasons we recommend Google Apps for business.

    With several options for accessing their information while on the go, employees can be productive with Google Apps even when they’re not at their desks. At no extra charge, Google Apps supports over-the-air mobile access on BlackBerry devices, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and many less powerful phones.

    With synchronous replication, your data and activity in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites is simultaneously preserved in multiple secure data centers. If one data center is unable to serve your requests, the system is designed to instantly fall back to another data center that can serve your account with no interruption in service.

    Integration options let you connect Google Apps to your existing IT infrastructure if you’re business is already on a domain and support options include: phone support for critical issues, email support, and self-service online support. Plans start at $5 per user per month or $50 per user per year.

    Microsoft Office 365, Docs for Facebook, and Windows Live SkyDrive

    Office 365

    For those who want the familiar Microsoft Office collaboration and productivity tools delivered through the cloud, Office 365 is the ideal solution. Everyone can work together easily with anywhere access to email, web conferencing, documents, and calendars. It includes business-class security and is backed by Microsoft. Whether you are a small business or multinational enterprise, Office 365 offers plans designed to fit your organization’s unique needs.

    Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses is $6 per user per month subscription that lets your employees access email, documents, contacts, and calendar from virtually anywhere on almost any device. This plan is ideal for organizations with fewer than 25 employees that do not have IT staff or expertise. Compare Office 365 to Google Apps for Business.

    Docs for Facebook

    Built using Microsoft Office 2010, Docs for Facebook provides the best possible document service for the Facebook environment. Seamless integration with Facebook means that the service is all about sharing your documents. Docs enables Facebook users for the first time to create and share Microsoft Office documents directly with their Facebook friends, using the Office tools they already know. Docs uses the Facebook login and is intended for personal use, but can be used for business if it suits your needs.

    Windows Live SkyDrive

    Windows Live SkyDrive is a free cloud storage service that allows users to upload files to Internet file storage and then access them from a Web browser. It is part of Microsoft’s Windows Live range of online services, and uses Windows Live ID to control access to files, allowing users to keep the files private, share them with contacts, or make the files public. Publicly-shared files do not require a Windows Live ID to access. The service offers 25 GB of free personal storage, with individual files limited to 100 MB. Compare this service to Dropbox for Teams.

    Erich Stauffer Technology Consulting

    If you need help choosing or deploying any of these solutions at your business, contact Indianapolis Technology Consultants, Erich Stauffer, Inc. We serve the Greater Indianapolis area, but travel all over the state of Indiana helping small business owners get more out of their technology.

  • How to Get More Customers

    We did a small test to see what were some of the biggest problems business owners had and what we found was the biggest problem was “How to Get More Customers“

    We know that in order to get more customers you must first figure out what your customers pain points are – find out what are the things they are complaining about that you can fix – and then determine if they are both able and willing to pay for them. The first part of that question is called a customer interview.

    Here’s an example: a business owner complains of having too much spam in their email. You respond by creating or finding a product that helps the client reduce their spam and then asking the customer if they would be willing to pay to have their spam reduced. This is called a solution interview.

    Customer and Solution Interviews are part of the Lean Startup methodology, which combines Customer Development and Agile Development to create a more sound Business Model that values learning. Agile and Lean both use iterative processes and the Scientific Method to hypothesize, test, and learn in order to create a product that customers actually want before building it. Once they have this “product/market fit” they built it as fast as possible. Erich Stauffer talks more about this cycle here.

    If you’re solving clients problems you won’t have to do much marketing at all – the customers will seek you out. If they aren’t seeking you out, you might not be solving their problems.

    How do you identify what your customers pain points are?

    The simplest answer is to ask your target client or existing client base what things are bothering them most and when you start to see a trend, you can start to ask if they’d be willing to pay for it to get fixed.

    A less effective, but quicker route is to find out where your customers are complaining or seeking out solutions online. A good way to do this is by using Google Discussion Search to search for problems people are sharing on forums and other discussion groups.

    We did a test search with the term “my business” and this is what we found:

    • My business keeps disappearing from Google Places
    • I need a slogan for my business
    • I need a logo for my Business and possibly a website
    • I need help getting payments to my business
    • What is the best CRM software for my business?
    • Anyone using Dropbox for business file storage?
    • I need a really good name for my business
    • I need help with my business card
    • A client owes my business money… what to do?
    • Can I request to remove my business from Yelp / Qype?
    • I need help getting my business off the ground
    • How to promote a new site?
    • How many of you have tried Offline Marketing ?
    • What’s your most effective marketing method?
    • What is the most important points of business?
    • How to get more customers?

    Once we started noticing a trend, we started recording things we could blog about, solutions for problems like which CRM is best, how to use Dropbox for your business, and how to promote a new website. Our first post is this post, which addresses the last question

    How to Get More Customers?

    1. Identify a need by asking or searching.
    2. Find a solution for that need.
    3. Ask potential clients if they would pay for that solution.
    4. If so, write about it. If not, find a different problem or solution.
    5. Once you’ve written about it, promote it using SEO.

    Essentially you start out with Lean methodologies, then do content marketing, then finish with SEO. So the key to getting more customers is not SEO, it’s knowing you have a product that solves a problem AND people are willing and able to pay for and then writing up content about it on your “home base” and only then doing search engine optimization.