Mango Business

Archive for April, 2009

There are lots of great things that you can get out of having a high speed

Internet connection in your own home, but first you have to figure out what

constitutes a high speed connection and then figure out how to get the fastest

connection that you possibly can. That’s because not all Internet connections

that claim to be ¡°broad band¡± or ¡°high speed¡± are equal in their abilities to

deliver Internet information to your computer’s hard drive. There’s actually a

lot more to high speed Internet than just getting a so called high speed

connection!

Comcast provides a great illustration of this. It claims to have a broad band

high speed connection and actually backs it up with download speeds that are

as high as 12 mbps for short periods of time (to help out with the really big

downloads) and 8 mbps the rest of the time. That’s plenty of speed to allow

you to take advantage of the resources that the Internet has to offer. For

example, it’s a lot easier to start your own online business when you have a

faster Internet connection. You can upload pictures of your products more

quickly, download the software that you need to run your business more

quickly, and even correspond with clients more quickly.

A high speed Internet connection that’s based on cable technology is also a

good move for entertainment and recreation as well. That’s because high

speed Internet is a good way to enjoy amateur videos from YouTube, play

online multiplayer computer games, and correspond with people from all over

the world. Virtual reality is something that combines those last two.

Specifically virtual worlds like Second Life and World of WarCraft will provide

this experience for you. World of WarCraft has a kind of fantasy theme, while

Second Life is more like an idealized version of the real world. Movies and

music are also easy to download when you have a fast Internet connection.

Unfortunately other companies that provide their high speed Internet services

using technologies other than cable just don’t deliver the same kind of speed.

DSL for example, which is one of the more popular Internet access

technologies, just doesn’t deliver very fast download speeds. It only delivers

about 2 mbps at the most for private homes. More often DSL download

speeds are more in the realm of well under 1 mbps! That’s a really slow

download speed. This results from the fact that DSL service is delivered over

phone lines instead of high quality coaxial cables. Satellite Internet has

similar shortcomings only they’re more pronounced, or more annoying,

because of the fact that satellite Internet costs so much more than anything

else. It’s about twice as expensive as cable or the typical DSL service!

Satellite Internet also has a time lag built into it that makes enjoying things like

virtual reality even tougher.

The whole point is that in order to get the most out of the time that you spend

on the Internet, you need a high bandwidth Internet connection!

The jury is still out about our current economy. Some say we will be experiencing a mild recession and others say we are on the brink of a depression. It doesn’t matter where you fall in the debate, one thing is certain, business growth is not as easy as it once was.

If you have been reading the news headlines, many CEO’s are focused on cutting costs and laying off employees. This does help short term profitability, however these actions are precisely the wrong strategy to take if you want to grow your company in a bad economy.

CEO’s who want to increase sales, profit margins and drive new business growth in 2009 should consider the following top 5 business growth success secrets.

1. Focus Marketing Dollars on Value Not Brand

Focusing your time and money on “Brand” marketing may increase name recognition however it doesn’t generate revenue. Showing customers what value your product or service provides will generate top line sales revenue. Spend more on marketing campaigns where the customer can experience your products value.

2. Stop Scaring Your New Prospects Away

Most corporate marketing campaigns, websites, sales collateral and sales processes scare customers away. From a customer’s point of view, your company looks and sounds just like your competitors. To be perceived differently and attract new customers you must stop focusing on your product features, functions, quality, customer service and company awards. You should focus more on how you solve your customers business problems.

3. Catch Amnesia

Forget how great you and your business performed last year. The past is the past. This year it’s a new game. The rules have changed and the players are different. What worked last year, will not return the same results. Re-evaluate your industry, competition, marketing strategy, sales strategy and financial management. Implement proven best practice business growth strategies.

4. Keep Score

Measure and monitor your key business growth indicators weekly. How do you know where to improve if you don’t know how you’re performing. For example, what is your customer conversion ratio, tradeshow ROI, closing ratio, marketing ROI, advertising ROI, sales cycle times, new prospect calls per week, deal size by industry, profit by product line, etc.

5. Work On Your Business, Not In It

CEO’s need to pull themselves out of the day to day issues. When times get tough, CEO’s spend more time in the details of the business. By doing this, CEO’s lose sight of what is most important, focusing on how to improve business performance in a changing competitive environment. Delegate or hire outside expertise to handle the day to day challenges. Focus more on strategic priorities.

Dennis Sommer is the founder and CEO of Executive Business Advisers, a management consulting firm specializing in business growth, sales and profit improvement http://www.executivebusinessadvisers.com . Dennis helps CEO’s increase sales revenue, reduce sales and marketing costs, improve marketing ROI, and drive new business growth by improving and optimizing their sales, marketing, company strategy and financial health. Dennis is a highly sought after business keynote and seminar speaker http://www.dennissommer.com and author of several highly popular sales, marketing, leadership and professional development international articles and books http://www.advisersecrets.com . Contact Dennis at 800-627-6512.

One of the most compelling cases for video conferencing technology has to be the reduction in travel costs.

Many businesses increasingly view travel as a drain on time and budgets. You can understand why when most business travellers admit that only half of the time spent on a business trip can be classed as productive working time. Not only could you reduce your business travel bills by up to 30%, but you could also improve employee productivity by cutting back on idle hours.

 

Allied to the reduction in travel time and costs is the environmental argument. Video conferencing uses little energy – no petrol, diesel or aviation fuel, only a few units of electricity. The technology can help the business reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact. To demonstrate the point, a UK environment minister gave a keynote speech at the Climate Change Conference in Sydney via video conferencing. This saved 60 hours of travel time and 6.2 tons of CO2 emissions.

 

Your business could benefit in other ways too. Video conferencing gives you the flexibility to hold ad-hoc meetings; you don’t have to plan weeks in advance. This flexibility could speed up decision-making and response times, which will also benefit your customers.

 

 

Why invest in video conferencing now?

In the past, video conferencing has had a bad reputation. It’s been seen as expensive, complex to implement and delivering low quality, jerky images. However, these arguments are losing ground as the technology rapidly evolves and affordable fast connections make high definition video conferencing a reality.

 

Traditionally, you would have needed an ISDN network for video conferencing, but today’s IP-based networks are fuelling an interest in converged voice, video and data communications. IP lends itself to cost-effective voice and video conferencing and has the added benefit of allowing users to collaborate on documents simultaneously. Cisco estimates that global IP traffic will increase fivefold over the next four years. The company also estimates that all forms of video traffic will make up 90% of global consumer IP traffic by 2013.

 

Video conferencing shopping list

There is a video conferencing system for every budget, ranging from personal desktop systems using low cost webcams, through to specialist video conferencing equipment designed for use in meeting rooms and other shared environments. However, the essential components of any video conferencing solution are camera, microphone, monitor, speaker and codec.

 

For most organisations, high definition video conferencing is the most readily available option and offers good quality on a limited budget (usually between £1,500 and £5,000).

 

Your next consideration should be the number of point to point video-enabling terminals or ‘endpoints’ needed. If you specify too few endpoints users could get frustrated that they do not have access to the technology. You need to balance the cost of the video conferencing equipment and services against convenient access to the network of endpoints.

 

Video infrastructure – a high definition video conferencing service may require an investment in additional network infrastructure, such as a dedicated line or circuit for each endpoint. Each session will demand connectivity of around 1Mbps for clear video and audio. Deploying high definition video on the enterprise network can cause problems; the network may not be able to handle real-time video, while video activity may compromise other enterprise tasks. The right media-ready network is vital to the delivery of business video applications.

 

Extra peripherals – you might also want to invest in additional peripheral devices to enhance the video conferencing experience; this could include high definition and wide-angle cameras, upgraded speakers and microphones. You may also want to connect your systems to DVDs, VCRs and document and multimedia applications via a PC.

 

Test the water with web conferencing

If there’s some resistance to investing in video conferencing solutions, one way of proving the benefit to the business may be to experiment with lower cost web conferencing solutions. These could not only demonstrate cost savings but also lead the way to more sophisticated technology.

 

Web conferencing allows your staff to share what’s on their desktop with people in other locations. Typically, this happens in conjunction with a phone call or audio conferencing session. Additional features include the ability to share documents and to work collaboratively on projects.

 

Why telepresence could be the next step for video conferencing

John Chambers, Cisco chief executive, has compared telepresence  to “Star Trek teleporting”. Telepresence offers ultra high resolution, which makes video conferencing an even more immersive experience. Spatial audio allows the transmission of every nuance of a conversation, while huge screens and high quality cameras capture every detail of an expression.

 

Fabulous as this sounds, telepresence remains an expensive technology to implement at present. It requires a high-bandwidth connection and a specifically designed room at each location.