Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Author: Paul Wallbank

  • ABC Nightlife Computers: The state of tech

    ABC Nightlife Computers: The state of tech

    Join Paul and Tony Delroy to look at some of the trends and events that are affecting how you use phones, computers and internet in your home or business.

    A lot’s happened in the tech world over the last few weeks – Facebook has gone from the web’s golden business to being shunned, new tablet computers have been launched and we’ve had a virus threaten to knock people off the Internet.

    If you missed the show, you can listen to it online through the Nightlife website. Some of the topics we looked at included;

    • So what was the DNS Changer Trojan? Did the FBI really take over a criminal computer network?
    • Could a virus really damage computers and bring the Internet to a halt?
    • Is it true the US, Israel and North Korea are using viruses to attack other countries’ computers?
    • Should we worry about viruses on smartphones and tablet computers?
    • What about virus hoaxes? There’s a good one going around about Facebook at the moment?
    • Both Microsoft and Google have launched new tablet computers, will they knock off the iPad?
    • Microsoft’s tablet is going to run the new Windows 8 operating system, how does that look?
    • Facebook seems to have gone from hero to zero since they launched on the stock market. What happened?
    • There’s been some pretty serious Facebook privacy changes recently, what should people watch out for?
    • Microsoft have had some big security updates this week, what are they.

    For the Microsoft updates we mentioned, the major security updates can be downloaded from the Windows Update page or the Automatic Updates in Windows Vista and 7.

    Windows 7 and Vista users should also disable the desktop widget feature, Microsoft have two fix it tools available for download and users should run both.

    Listeners questions included the following problems;

    Alternatives to Outlook Express

    George was looking at upgrading to a new version of Windows that doesn’t have Outlook Express included but still wants a computer based email client rather than trusting a cloud service.

    Some of the alternatives include;

    Antivirus programs

    Margaret asked about antivirus options for Macs, there’s a couple of free antivirus programs designed for the Apple Mac

    For Windows users, the easiest free anti-virus to use is Microsoft Security Essentials.

    Microsoft Silverlight on Android

    Accessing Microsoft Silverlight based services like NineMSN on Google Android devices can be a problem as Jason found.

    Unfortunately at this stage there’s no clear solution for playing Silverlight sites on Android devices as Moonlight, the open source Silverlight player has been abandoned.

    Next Nightlife spot

    Our next Nightlife tech spot will be on August 6 and we’ll decide the topics closer to the dates. Watch the website for details over the next few weeks.

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  • Using your customers to build a world beating business

    Using your customers to build a world beating business

    Listening to your customers is a business truism, it’s so obvious that it really shouldn’t have to be said. Unfortunately all of us have to be reminded of this sometimes.

    The amazing thing is today’s business has the tools not just to listen to our customers, but also to react quickly.

    At Microsoft’s Asia Pacific Entrepreneur summit this week, we had the opportunity to hear from some of leading voices of the Australian startup and investment community.

    One of the things that really leapt out from the array of founders, investors and entrepreneurs is how successful businesses thrive from listening to their customers.

    Michelle Deaker spoke of her experience in founding giftcards.com in 1997. At that time there was no experience in running an online gift card business and the only way to figure out what worked was to listen to customers. Eventually Michelle sold out of the business and today talks from the investment side of building enterprises as the CEO of OneVentures.

    Viocorp founder Ian Gardiner described how their video streaming business not only has to adapt to customers’ needs but also to a market that has dramatically changed over the last decade.

    Moving quickly to respond to those market changes is something Sebastien Eskersley-Maslin of Blue Chilli touched upon in his presentation where startups in their Venture Technology program are encouraged to get a built product out of the door in three months.

    “You can’t build quickly enough” says Sebastien.

    Sebastian also has a three customer view – there’s the customer that you build the product for, the bulk customer such as a corporation and the “strategic customer” who is the potential buyer for your business.

    Considering the business buyer as being the ultimate customer fits into the Silicon Valley model of “flipping” business which isn’t applicable for many ventures although it illustrates that we need to consider customers through the prism of our own business objectives.

    That we often don’t listen to customers is unforgivable in an always on, connected world. We have the communications tools like social media and the business intelligence tools to monitor visits to our websites and sales through our stores.

    In a world where we’re lionizing technology startups on the basis of the number of users – note “users” are not the same as “customers” – or the amount of money a large corporate will pay for a small development team, it’s important we don’t lose touch with the basis of all businesses.

    Ultimately it’s the customers who matter – if we don’t solve a problem, fill a need or provide value then our businesses are ultimately worthless.

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  • Little disruptions

    Little disruptions

    Seasoned travellers learned long ago to treat the phone in their hotel room with caution as massive mark ups on call charges were a nice profit centre for most establishments.

    With the arrival of the mobile phone, that revenue stream started to shrink and now one hotel in Vancouver has decided to replace their room phones with iPhones.

    The Vancouver Opus hotel already supplies iPads in their rooms and the phones seem a natural extension to that, particularly given the chain has a “virtual concierge” app to guide guests.

    Increasingly it’s only the older hotel chains that rely on excessive charges for things like telephone calls and Internet access. Those establishments rely on the more senior business traveller who are locked into a 1970s way of travelling.

    When you stay at cheaper accommodation or newer boutique establishments, you find many of the expensive extras in the major chains are available cheaply or free. It’s a quandary of travel that a backpackers’ hostel will offer free Wi-Fi while the Sheraton up the road will charge $60 for an often inferior service.

    The opportunity for the Sheratons, or the Hiltons, or the Four Seasons to charge those sort of rates is dying at the same rate their older clientele is retiring. Its a dead model.

    Fortunately for those hotel chains, slamming guests with fat phone charges was just icing on a very rich cake, the loss of those revenues over the last two decades has been unfortunate but not fatal.

    Other businesses though might not be so lucky – if your business relies on big, unreasonable markups then right now you are in a sector very ripe for disruption.

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  • Hanging on the telephone

    Hanging on the telephone

    Ever tried to call an online company about a problem? As the New York Times explains, it’s often hard to find the telephone number, let alone someone to answer your call.

    The NY Times article worries a new type of digital divide is appearing between those happy to do business using email or social media and those who who demand to speak to someone.

    In reality, the truth is more subtle than just generational differences – it’s about the web2.0 service-free business model where few, if any, resources are spent on customer support. The idea is the an assistance can be given out on “self service” basis through a website or, better still, crowdsourced on a user forum where the customers work together to figure out solutions themselves.

    For many of the web based cloud computing and social media businesses, this model is essential to their survival. If you were to add a customer support department answering telephones, the viability of the business would collapse.

    While it’s uncertain if that business model is sustainable for many of these web based companies, it’s interesting to ponder how many phone calls most businesses could avoid by having relevant information on their website.

    It’s worthwhile looking at call logs and asking your staff what are the most common questions to your business. Answering those on the company web site might mean happier customers and fewer staff distractions.

    For some businesses, letting customers discuss issues in an online company forum might be a way of crowdsourcing support and giving ideas for future products or service improvements.

    Rather than leaving customers and staff hanging on the phone, having relevant and helpful information on the website saves everybody time and money.

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  • Are small business owners whingers?

    Are small business owners whingers?

    People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation sends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations.

    At a meeting with the state’s Small Business Commission I was once again reminded of Adam Smith’s words – that business owners will try to seek whatever opportunity they can to raise prices and whinge when they can’t.

    Over the last few months I’ve heard business owners complain the government doesn’t do enough to protect the quality of their imports, give them more onstreet dining permits, stop their neighbours from having onstreet dining permits and, my favourite of all, regulating discounts offered on group buying websites.

    Restauranteurs are complaining their customers don’t appreciate the cost of running a business – which is true, but it isn’t the customers problem.

    A spectacular example is the anti-carbon tax propaganda where local businesses are displaying letters from a political party claiming their prices will go up and one franchise chain was dumb enough to even write down their plans to blame price rises on the new tax.

    We also have the ongoing narrative that local councils – particularly those controlled by Green or Independent groups – are “anti-business” and killing commerce through unfairly enforcing parking rules and building bicycle lanes. Something that nicely fits the talking points of the Corporatist political parties that anyone who isn’t endorsed by a major party is “a dangerous radical”.

    The best of all though is the ongoing campaign to eliminate the GST and import duties threshold for overseas purchases, which claims all the problems of the nation’s retailers would be solved if customers were forced to wait a week a pay a couple of hundred dollars in administrative fees.

    Some of these gripes are fair – some councils are unreasonable (interestingly usually in areas where local government is seen as a stronghold a big party), the current tax rules are unfair and there are truly stupid people deeply discounting on group buying sites – but most of them are just excuses.

    Business is always tough, if it wasn’t everybody would be doing it and taking it easy.

    If all you can do is whinge about prices, your council, the government, your competitors, staff or your customers then maybe you should think about getting a job or at least taking a holiday.

     

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