Why You Need E3 Systems

You need our products, find out why.

The life of an entrepreneur is filled with meetings.  Meetings with possible customers.  Meetings with prospective venture capital investors.  Finally, meetings with other entrepreneurs at social events to discuss how to generate more business.  It is a like your life becomes a blur of meetings and it is hard to keep track.  Last week, I attended a meeting with a local business organization to discuss search engine optimization and getting my business ready for the web.  I met some very helpful people and a mentor or two who challenged me about the products I sell and who could use them.  This week on the blog, I wanted to share my thoughts on why you could use E₃ systems.

We founded this organization three years ago because, we wanted to help small and medium sized businesses use the web just like the Fortune 500.  With to cost of bandwidth going down, the use of cloud based services, and the rise of mobile computing we felt that we could create tools which worked over the web for any business.  We also constructed those tools to work on tablet computers, mobile phones and traditional web browsers.

We created our Sully 2.0 tool to help you keep track of your inventory and to generate all the documents you need for shipping and receiving products for your business.  Since the software is cloud based, when we upgrade the software you automatically get an upgrade to your system.  We tied the system with QR coding technology so that you would never have to purchase expensive bar-coding software.  This could save you hundreds of dollars because our inventory management system can work with smart phones instead of expensive bar code scanning software.  With Sully 2.0 you can scan a QR code and see exactly what you have on hand and where it is in your warehouse.  So if you had a chance to keep track of your inventory and save hundreds of dollars in the process wouldn't you do it?

Our Tony tool, for the price of a burger or shake, makes it possible for you to track the maintenance on any vehicle or piece of equipment in your inventory.  This allows you to make sure that all your equipment is under warranty, properly maintained, and provides unimpeachable evidence in case of litigation or an accident.  This will help you save money in maintenance and insurance premiums over the life of your business.  We provided an e-mail reminder feature so that when it is time to fix a vehicle you receive an e-mail and we have also integrated QR code technology and the ability to place scanned receipts into the system to ensure that everything is up regulatory standards.  Again wouldn't you like the peace of mind that comes with having your information regarding any piece of equipment you have at your firm accessible over the cloud to your smartphone, tablet, or PC?  We make that happen.

So we give you easy to use and low cost technology tools which work over the web to help your business save money.  Who wouldn’t want that?  Reach out to us today and see how we can help you.  Being entrepreneur is difficult and filled with meetings but if we can help one business meet its goals then it is worth it.

Until next time.

Software and Your Local School Bus Company

Would you like to know how well maintained
your child's school bus is?

We see them every do and we really do not give much thought to them.  On our way to work we pass them by and do not give them much thought.  Rarely do I even think about them when I see them pick up young people on their way to school.  I am talking about school buses and each day communities blindly trust companies we know little about to safely transport our children to and from school.  It is a pretty serious business filled with insurance risks and major expenses. This week I want to discuss how our software Tony can help school bus companies stay on top of maintenance and insurance expenses.

When I began writing Tony a year ago, I was thinking about truck fleets but after speaking with a few bankers and other people I decided that I should expand the focus of my software to include farm equipment and other types of motor fleets.  I even met someone who worked for a porta-potty company who though my software could help him.  It took a few detours and corrections but now you can track the maintenance of how your items are maintained by either hours of operation, mileage or simple date.  This makes it perfect for just about any business which has hard assets which need maintenance.

This brings me to school districts and school bus companies.  I am sure as a parent you would like to know how often the breaks are fixed on each bus.  Oil needs to be changed and tire pressure maintained.  Our Tony system makes tracking that information as easy as a click of a mouse or the swipe on a smart phone.  I am very excited about it and if you are managing a bus barn then you should be too because now with the scan of a QR code on a bus you can see up to the moment when work was done on the vehicle.  This will give additional piece of mind to the school board and parents who are curious about the buses their children ride on.

More importantly, we can see how our systems can help with insurance adjusters and companies.  For example, if you are involved in an accident you now have proof that you did actual maintenance on the vehicle and that mechanical failure can be ruled out as the cause of the accident.  In addition, these detailed records can be used as a means to negotiate with an insurance company to make sure that you get the most economically efficient rates you can from your insurance firm.  So using Tony is a great means to track maintenance and reduce insurance costs and liability risks.

At E₃ we are constructing these systems because we want to have easy and affordable means of helping small businesses stay on top of their fleets.  Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.  An account executive will give you a call and together you can discuss how we can improve your maintenance records.

We do not pay much attention to school buses unless something bad happens.  With the help of E₃ systems Tony we can help you save time, money and help postpone the bad things from happening.

Until next time.

We were mobile before mobile was cool

The future is mobile computing

Last week, I discussed a few trends you missed. I want to follow up on that blog post because we are depending on technology more.  The technology with the most influence is mobile technology and it grew last year by 115%.  This week in the blog I want to remind you why you should pay attention to this.

In 2013, mobile application use increased by 115%. The use of smart phones and the dominance of data means that as a professional and business person your business is going to depend more on how you view your information.  This means, that systems should not be tethered to desk top computers and clunky systems.  Today, it should be possible to follow up on invoices, bills of lading and other important activities inside your organization via your mobile device.  So software vendors who sell you solutions which do not work on mobile devices are not doing their job correctly.

At E₃ systems we have two major releases which work on both a laptop, tablet, and mobile device.  Our Sully 2.0 system helps you keep track of bills of lading, invoices, and purchase orders from the desktop to the phone.  We have also made the transition from Microsoft Tag to QR coding which gives us way to connect pieces of paper to the web.  We are also proud to announce the release of our Tony software which makes managing your fleet of vehicles easy.  Now drivers and upload documents via their phones, receipts are accessible and you can track the maintenance of your vehicles.  This will help you with your insurance premiums and when accidents happen protect you from liability.

At E₃ systems we saw this trend years ago and it has shaped how we have created software ever since. Contact us today and find out more.  This is one trend you should not miss.

Until next time.

What real entrepreneurs have on their phone.

Applications for the Entrepreneur on the go.

I love my local chamber of commerce.  I love them so much that each year I pay them dues and attend many of the functions they host.  This week there was a bit of a kerfuffle on social media when they posted an article from thenextweb.com about the top 13 mobile applications an entrepreneur should have on their smart phone.  Crestfallen, I replied, “May-be you should ask one of your members who writes mobile apps?” They replied saying that I should write something up so this week on the blog for my regular readers and members of the Joliet Chamber of Commerce here are some of the web application I can’t live without and I am an entrepreneur.

Esponce QR Code Reader – I am a big fan of QR codes and using them to have pieces of paper communicate with the internet.  Esponse QR code makes this as easy as taking a picture on your phone.  What makes Esponce so good is that in addition to reading QR codes you can create them on the fly from your phone.  Finally Esponce offers a tracking service and a history of all the codes you have scanned.  Download the application here.

Ubersocial Pro Twitter Client - If you are on the go staying on top of your Facebook and Twitter reputation can be a full time job.  Ubersocial makes using Twitter and Facebook is a snap. You can follow particular users or hashtags update both Facebook and Twitter with one touch from your phone and be instantly notified when someone talks about your organization.  There is a pro version with advertising and then Pro version for $4.99.  Ditch the ads and pay for the pro version, you can thank us later. Download it here. 

Google Keep - It is hard to take notes and save them electronically.  Google Keep is a simple introductory tool to save notes on your phone of tablet.  If you find a web page you want to read later you can share it with Keep to read later.  Grocery or to do lists can be set up with a click.  You can even set up reminders to send e-mails or text messages to do something.  Even if you lose your phone or tab let you can access your Keep notes via the web.  It is not the biggest or must fully feature note taking tool but for someone learning to take electronic notes it is a great start.  Find it here.

Kindle Book Reader – Entrepreneurs spend a great deal of time traveling.  Lugging around books and magazines can be a hassle.  The Kindle reader app allows you to have an entire newsstand and bookstore at your fingertips the next time you are on a long flight. The reader automatically hooks into Amazon.com’s website and you can get the latest best sellers with a swipe.  For people who love to read or need to keep up this is a must have.  Download your version here.

Google Drive - Being an entrepreneur means sales presentations, demonstrations, and lots of travel.  It would be nice if your spreadsheets, documents, and presentations could be accessed in one place.  Google Drive makes this a reality.  The Google drive behaves like a regular hard drive but instead of physically existing on your phone, tablet or PC it exists on Google's servers safe and secure.  So if you change a spreadsheet on your tablet when you view it on your phone or PC the changes are saved.  This is easier to use and safer than a thumb drive. Learn more here.

Songza – All work and no play make the life of an entrepreneur dull.  Songza is a music application which helps find music for any mood or moment.  Instead of playlists and stations being managed by computers, Songza employees human being to keep the music selections fresh so if your tastes range from early sixties jazz bebop to the latest hits you have your pick of quality commercial free music.  I especially like the Space Age Bachelor Pad channel playing lounge music from the Mad Men era of history and College Memories 1980 – 1989.  Try out Songza an you will not use another streaming music service.

As an entrepreneur those are the application I have to have on my smart phone.  At E₃ systems we also make mobile and web applications which might help you.  Our first application is called Sully and it is an inventory management system which can produce Bills of Lading, Invoices, and packing slips from your phone, tablet or PC.  We also have an application named Tony which helps you track the care and maintenance of item in your fleet of vehicles.  It also works on a phone, tablet and PC.  This system will help you stay on top of insurance risks and maintenance warranties with the swipe of a finger.  To learn more about E₃ systems and our products please click here.

Kerfuffles are a good thing and I hope this one helps you find the applications to make doing business easier.

Until next time.

What is so great about 2014?

Looking forward to 2014 are you?

There are plenty of reasons to get excited about 2014.  A new year is a clean slate and it firers up an organization with the inspiration to come out fighting; like a punch drunk boxer.  This week on the blog I want to talk about some things we are looking forward to as an organization.

First, customer outreach; E₃ systems has been making efforts to reach out tour local community.  We were concentrating our products to a very narrow market.  This year, we will apply our products to any business that can use fleet management or inventory control software. Contact us today and ask how our systems can help your business today.

Next, we are graduating from Microsoft BizSpark. Three years ago someon I knew in the Chicagoland Application Lifecycle Management group told me about the BizSpark program. This company could not have started without the generous help and support.  I am looking forward to the time when I will be able to boast about our success to the tech media.  There is a place in the start-up world for Microsoft Technologies and we are proof.

Third, the continuing maturity of BootStrap and MVC means that the web is catching up to our vision.  When, I founded this organization I wanted to build web applications which worked on a variety of devices. Thanks to the Twitter BootStrap library, it is not possible for more people to make that a reality.  This is a good thing because it will be easier for my little start-up to find developer who understand what we are trying to accomplish.  We are also excited about the release of MVC5.  The embrace of BootStrap by Microsoft along with the security improvements and Web API means that the web is only going to get more interesting and we cannot wait to see that happen.

Next, Google has better unity between YouTube and Google+.  When Google+ first came out it was hard to get pages and YouTube channels to play nice with each other.  This made marketing and branding efforts a huge headache.  Fortunately, Google listen to its consumers and now pages and YouTube channels work together seamlessly.  Thanks Google and stay tuned as we make improvements to our YouTube channel.

Finally, the general economy is improving and with it the chance to grow our customer base.  The last three years have shown tremendous growth in web technology.  We at E₃ systems have stayed focused on those improvements to provide the best product for our customers.  With customers willing to spend on technology solutions we will see an uptick in customer and business.

So that is what we have to look forward to in 2014, we hope you will join us.

Until next time.

Light Out of Darkness

We chase the dream to find light in the darkness.

The life of an entrepreneur is lonely and filled with rejection.  I spend my time alone working on products and placing the finishing touches on code.  I find myself using my free time to solicit customers and finally I am making hard business decisions which I thought I would never make.  It is a life of sacrifice which often ends in failure and only a rare few make it.  I would not trade it for anything in the world.  This week our blog post is about why E₃ systems continues to chase entrepreneurial dream.

If you have been following the blog the last few weeks, you might have noticed that we have had to overcome several obstacles.  First, we decided to push back the release date of our Tony product and then the news that Microsoft was going to stop supporting their Microsoft Tag system.  Setbacks like that could kill a smaller business but I am proud to say that we are not dead yet.  We are currently looking for a new vendor for QR coding services and we will be releasing our Tony product this month.

It took personal sacrifice and hard work but I think that we are going to be in a very good position for 2014 providing three services for our customers to subscribe to.  Sully 2.0, Tony 1.0, and our continuing services make it possible for us to help the small to medium sized business achieve its goals.  We also have plans in the near future to continue development on our ever expanding line of products.

We also had a very good conversation with a local enterprise customer and hope that this will expand our exposure with business people in more rural communities.

We started this firm to chase a dream.  That dream was to help small and medium sized businesses grow and reap the benefit of cloud based computing.  If you would like to know more about us contact us here.  We think that we are close to meeting that goal.  When things are darkest is when people discover the light which will guide their way.  We have endured the darkness and we are ready to light the way.

Until next time.

MS Tag is Going Away and We Have Something to Say About It.

Hopefully will will not have remorse like
 the woman who received this tattoo.

Lots of big news from Redmond this week, I will save my thoughts about Steve Ballmer for a more private forum.  When news arrived in my mail box on Monday last week that Microsoft was going to discontinue Microsoft Tag Support, I received a flurry of instant messages from friends and colleagues. They wanted to know about how it would affect E₃ systems and my personal feelings on the subject.  In this blog post, I want everyone to know where we stand as a business and what this news means for the QR industry.

My first reaction to this was anger.  Why would Microsoft pull this service when it could be a great way for enterprise operations to have paper documents communicate with mobile devices?  It then occurred to me that I had written a blog on the subject a almost a year ago discussing how advertising and marketing firms were not using QR codes correctly.  Then I read the following article in the aftermath of the announcement and anger quickly mellowed into a vinegary vintage of disappointment.

Because QR code support and MSTag are not built into phones people do not scan tags.  Because people don’t scan tags marketing firms do not create suitable mobile marketing content for discourages scans and further undermines the technology.  I was hoping to use MSTag and QR codes for a manufacturing and regulatory compliance purpose.  Now Microsoft was pulling the plug and we would have to find some other technology or means to fill the breach.

Our reprieve was that Microsoft would not kill the service right away.  They provided a two year window and offered the services of a third party ScanLife to provide hosting for QR codes and MSTag.  They even sent an e-mail and phone number to contact someone as I migrate the service.  The plot thickened when I received an e-mail from ScanLife saying they were very excited about how we used the MSTag service and that they would like to speak with me personally.  That appointment is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

I am disappointed that Microsoft is making this decision.  Looking at the trends and how the technology was misused I understand why that made this choice.  This profoundly effects how E₃ systems Sully 2.0 and Tony Platform operate. I am also concerned that this change may effect the profitability of the organization.  If necessary, we will have to do something different at this time. We are just not sure what the future holds.  We will keep you posted.

Until next time.

Making No Little Plans

Greatness means making no small plans.

Being an entrepreneur feels like being a wall flower at your high school dance.  You are lonely standing on the sidelines while everyone else is out on the dance floor having a good time.  More aggravating is that when you ask someone to dance they politely reject your advances or insult you for being so bold as to imply that you even had the right to dance with them.   By the end of the evening you have a sugar high from drinking too much from the punch bowl and your self-esteem is about two sizes smaller than the start of the evening.  I seems like it takes a little courage to show up at your high school dance.

This week’s blog post I want to talk about why we keep dealing with the setbacks and challenges to try and build this business.  I hail from the Chicago metropolitan area and one of the founding fathers of this city is Daniel Burnham who was an early pioneer of skyscraper construction and chief architect of the 1893 Colombian exposition.  He said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”

I was and am tired of making small plans in my cubical.  I want to help other small and medium sized businesses leverage the power of the web and cloud based computing.  I want to get involved in philanthropy and help others with the opportunities I was fortunate to receive.  I want to be able to own my own office and lay it out the way I want.   Some of this is ego driven and the remainder is motivated by a strong desire to make the business community in my local corner of the world better.

We think that we have the tools to make that happen.  Our Sully 2.0 software makes managing inventory and bills of lading twenty four hours a day seven days a week.  We have a broad knowledge of agile management and we have the people who will help your organization manage the transition.  We are putting the finishing touches on the Tony fleet maintenance system. Finally, we can put together QR codes for you to help drive more business to your organization and web site.  This makes us poised for growth and greatness. No little plans indeed.

Contact us today and we will tell you more.

Until Next time.

The Quality Goes in Before the Software Ships Out.

I think we need to explain.

This has been an amazing week of transition for E₃ systems.  We have formally been in business for three years.  We are also on the cusp of a new software release. Today I want to talk about our new product Tony and why you will have to wait a little longer before it goes live.

Early in 2013, a potential client called us out of the blue and wanted to know if we could put together a simple contact management system for them.  We rushed a prototype out and demonstrated it to the client.  They seemed enthusiastic until we gave them a contract and said that they would have to pay for us to finish the project since it was done on spec.  We never heard from that client again.  I suppose this was a good development because if they were not going to return our calls or honor a contract I am sure that getting paid would have also been a serious problem.

The months of March and April were gloomy as we continued to sell our main product Sully 2.0 and assess the failure of our prototype project.  Some good did come out of the work because; we developed experience in MVC 4 and Entity Framework code first for rapid project turn around.  By May, we had come up with a new project and idea which we nick-named Tony after a famous Fiat mechanic.

Tony would be an easy to use system to track maintenance for vehicles in any sized fleet. Trucking companies, rental firms, and even car dealerships could use the system to keep track of when and where work was done.  It would become a living record and best of all it would obey the philosophy of all products at E₃ systems.  It would work on a smart phone, tablet, and personal computer.  We also leveraged the power of Microsoft Tag so someone in the field would scan a code on their phone and get instant information.

We had scheduled that Tony would launch in July of 2013.  It was a hectic schedule made even more dramatic by the server migration we did to upgrade our software and databases.  Something had to give and it was clear that the migration took precedence and that we would have to push back the release of Tony.  We also felt that we needed to do more work on the product before it was ready for release and sale.  I am deeply disappointed about this but as the president of the company I would rather ship quality software that release something and then expect my customers to find bugs and act as our quality assurance team.

So we are planning to release our Tony software in mid-September.  I felt that you our customers deserved and explanation.  We had been dropping hints about Tony for the last two months and felt you needed an honest explanation of why it is not here.  As a young start-up we are not in the business of vaporware so please forgive us for the delay.  If you have any questions or concerns please drop us a line and we will have an account executive contact you directly.

Until next time.

Our Direction.

Hard work and we are ready to help you rock your business

We are currently in the middle of an upgrade and finishing up a major release which we are going to unveil next week.  I am pretty proud of the direction we are heading.  This week’s blog post we talk about some of those changes.

I founded this company because I wanted to provide tools for small and medium sized businesses to help them run their businesses for effectively. This meant web based systems where you could track invoices, inventory, and manage bills of lading.  I worked my day job and at night and weekends began building my software empire.  It was really just a software developer and a dream.  That was nearly three years ago and I am just as dedicated to the cause now as I was then.  Our Sully 2.0 system is a fine cloud based platform to make it easy for you to have a state of the art shipping and receiving system for the price of cable television.  We have mercilessly tested it with professionals inside and outside the trucking industry.  If it can meet their approval then we are sure it will meet yours.

Next week we are unveiling the release of Tony.  This software helps you track the vehicles in your fleet and the maintenance they have undergone.  No longer will you have to rifle through piles of paperwork or try to sift through receipts to know how many times you changed oil or had to repair breaks.  Now you have a simple means to view the information with your smart phone, tablet computer, or PC.  We have also folded Microsoft Tag technology into the system so you can place a simple bar code on the dash of the vehicle and scan it to receive up to the minute information.  We think that something like this is going to make life much easier for your safety and compliance departments.

E₃ also offers other services.  We will be happy to provide agile project management training for your organization.  We also offer web site design and construction to make your company web sites respond to the mobile web and drive more business to your organization.  Finally, we can consult on how to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to spread your message.

We offer all of these services and as we head into our third year we are looking forward to a break out year with customers, new challenges, and lots of stories along the way.  Contact us today and find out how you can join us.

Until next time.

The Other Revolution.

You might have missed the other revolution going on this
week.

It has been a rough week.  Chechen criminals bombing the Boston Marathon and the fertilizer factory explosion in Texas have sucked all the oxygen out of the national media.  What you might have missed is the more quiet and insidious revolution taking place under your nose.

This blog has been very vocal about the revolution.  The evidence also continues to mount and if you don’t get involved you and your business will be swept aside; this is the cloud computing revolution and the continued acceptance of the smart phones by the consumer market.

Your customers are using smart phones with increasing frequency and they are using them in way which is disrupting small and big business with equal ferocity.  One of these trends is called “showrooming” where customers go to appliance, book or electronics stores and window show.  Then they scan the bar codes and price check those product in an effort to get a better deal.  This is great for consumers but it is strangling the margins of many businesses.  Showrooming is not only a threat to retail business but in diverse fields like automotive insurance and philanthropy.

Furthermore social media is being used to sell products and formulate opinion about those brands.  So now unless you devote yourself full time to staying on top of social media the good name of your business could be tarnished.  They were even joking about this trend on this Sunday’s Doonesbury strip.

Finally your business needs a web presence which not only looks good on a standard web browser but it needs to look good on a tablet computer or smart phone.  For a small business, it gets to be overwhelming.  This is why I helped found E₃ systems we help take care of the many considerations you need to make when constructing a web site which needs to look good on major web platforms including smart phones and tablets.

We also understand the growing technologies of mobile bar coding and cloud computing so that you can benefit from the same technologies used by the Fortune 500.

We would love to tell you more so feel free to contact us.

Until next time.

The Gift of Time

Stressed and need more time,
we understand.

Most business people I speak to have one wish.  They want more time.  They want to spend more time with their families. They want more time to manufacture better products.  They want more time to better service their customers and they want more time to learn new skills.  There is never enough time in the day because there is always one more call to take, one more e-mail to respond to and one more customer who you need to make a sale.  I understand that wish because I say it at least every day.  It would be great if someone could give us the gift of more time.

One of the reasons, I started E₃ Systems was to help small businesses win back a little more time.  We spend hours a day doing paperwork and chasing down calls.  We struggle with obsolete and expensive software because it is “good enough”.  Many of the tasks we do in our business lives are nothing more than a colossal time suck.  I understood that and knew that I could help write software that would help.  Today, we have online systems which help you manage your inventory without having to install expensive hardware or software.  These systems also work on mobile phones, tablet computers, and laptops.  As long as you have a connection to the web they will just work.

Now, instead of calling into the office to see if you have product in stock you can just make a few taps to your smart phone and find out instantly in real time; this should save you hours of labor.  We also understand that gathering documentation together to meet regulatory requirements is a time consuming hassle.  We understand and make it easy to generate documents and reports at a moment’s notice.  Finally, with the help of Microsoft’s Tag technology we have a way for every piece of paper to communicate with the web and your smart phone so that important documents are just a click away.

These kinds of services make it possible to save time because you are no longer riffling through paperwork and obsolete computer systems.  It also saves you payroll because you need fewer administrative professionals to manage that paperwork. That gives you a chance to free them up to meet with clients and sell to new ones.  That is what is in it for you.  More time to manage your business and less payroll for administrative staff.

I am sure it is a luxury any business person would want.  So contact us today and ask about how we can give you the gift of time.

Until Next time.

Survival Not Manditory

Neither rabbits nor your business needs to survive.

It is nice to be part of the Easter Season.  The reflection and fasting of lent gives way to spring and growth of a new year.  I have spent the week working the phone and attempting to drum up business.  We are in the middle of a site revision right now and working with the local chamber of commerce to help grow our customer base. Something struck me this week and it was a report from showing there is a generational gap between the three major cohorts of people in business.  As a small business owner if you don’t adapt to these generational differences you might as well prepare for your going out of business sale.

First, baby boomers according to the Mitek systems use e-mail less than generation X workers and even less than generation Y workers.  So this means when it comes to communicating information the more senior cohort of business users communicate less using technology than their more junior partners.  This trend is even more pronounced when it comes to instant messaging and laptop use.  It seems that Boomers use desktop computers more than they use laptops by a significant margin.  This means there is a serious disconnect about how computers do business.  For people of Generation X, like me, and the younger generation Y, computing is not a fixed activity.  Computing takes place in coffee shops, on the train and on planes.  If you can find an electrical plug and wireless internet you are going to find smart ambitious people conducting business.

The most interesting part of the survey covered mobile phones and smart phones.  As of 2011, 83 percent of Americans own a cellphone or a smartphone.  When you break down this cell phone usage by cohort something interesting happens.  Baby Boomers use a smartphone in the workplace 35% less than generation X and a whopping 73% less than generation Y.  This means that baby boomers are missing out a huge business opportunity to sell to this younger group because they are not using the technology and tools which generation Y is most comfortable.

As a technology professional, I find this to be madness.  You want to increase our market share and sales but you do not understand the means to reach these new customers.  That is because you are not using the tools that these people take for granted.  I also notice that when I speak with business leaders and share with them this information they blanch because since they don’t own a smart phone they do not think that reaching customers by it is important.  It is a deadly cognitive bias.

W. Edward Deming used to say, “It is not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory.”  I am seeing this increasingly in small and medium sized business.  Cloud based computing, smart phones, and serious generational differences in the use of technology mean that if you cannot adapt then you are not going to survive.  How are you going to put together viral marketing campaigns, adaptive web sites, and mobile phone optimized campaigns if you can don’t understand the importance of them?  How will be able to manage your inventory and sales contacts in real time if you don’t have systems in place to do so?  Finally, how are you going to adapt to change if you don’t understand Agile methodologies and techniques?

This is where we at E₃ systems come in.  We help you understand this brave new world and act as your guides through the wilderness or smartphones, social media, and business agility.  Contact us today and we will help.

Easter is a time of rebirth but it can also be a grim reminder of our mortality particularly if you are a business person.  Survival is not mandatory but E₃ systems is willing to help.  Give us a call and find out today.

Until Next time.

Funny Squares that Replace Business Cards

What better way to show off.

The life of a technologist is spent relearning there job every eighteen months.  It is just the nature of the profession.  This week I spent my week receiving training as a Certified Scrum Master.  While I was at training, I broke out of my shell of meetings, code, and sales calls to talk with other technologists who share the same passion for Agile business practices that I do. In spite of all technological skill in the room we still swapped business cards like we were part of the cast of Mad Men.

I firmly believe that the business card will help archaeologists understand the operation of the contemporary corporation five hundred years from now.  They contain personal information about a person, how to get in touch with them and their relative position within the organization.  They will also chronicle how businesses have tinkered with the English language as Sales People have transformed into Account Executives.  It is a universally accepted custom in business that when you meet another business person there is an expectation that you will receive their business card.  It is such an accepted custom that it was brutally parodied in the book and film American Psycho.

It is always nice to hand out business cards and to network however in this age of smart phones and Google Glass why does it have to be so cumbersome.  When I receive a business card, I want to place that information into my smart phone right away.  The sad reality is that I can't.  I either have to go on my e-mail program and enter the information in my contacts or I have to go to an online service which will sync the information with my phone.  It just seems wasteful.

It would be nice if a technology exists which makes it possible to instantly scan a business card and place it in our phone's contacts.  The good news is we already possess this technology.  It is courtesy of Microsoft and it is called MS Tag.  Thanks to MS Tag you now have an easy means to allow people to enter your business card into their smart phones.  The application is free from Microsoft and once installed easy to use.  Just point the camera from the smart phone at the square code and it creates a contact for your phone.  That is it.  No muss and no fuss.

E₃ systems will provide this service free to you or your business.  We offer lots of other services to our customers but this is our way of introducing ourselves to people who may not be familiar with business automation or using technology to streamline their business.  Contact us today and we will show you how.

Until next time.

You need a digital handshake

A digital handshake can help your business.

Lots of news happened this week.  We have a new pope and he looks like someone who shows a great deal of promise.  The wheels of government continue to grind along in spite of a charm offensive.  We also had some baseball games which counted in March and team USA once again disappointed.  What you may have missed is the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone.  This is just another sign that the business world is changing and if you do not catch this wave you are going to drown.

As Will Oremus reported the Galaxy S4 unveil was a silly and weird affair but it does remind me of the hype surround automobiles in the 1970's and the excitement generated by the promotions for new Saturday morning cartoons on network television.  As a technologist I am being asked to write applications which work on as many different environments as possible.  It is no longer good enough to have a web site.  Now you must have a web site, tablet application, and something that looks good on your mobile phone. 

I have been saying this for a while but I am going to say it again.  The dual technologies of cloud computing and mobile computing are going to change business and if you are not ready for it you are going to get left behind.  This is why you need help from a company like E₃ systems.  We are surfing this wave of technology.  We understand how to use the cloud and mobile computing to make life easier for small businesses.  We can help you with your web development, QR code creation, and numerous other services which will make it easier to do business with others. 

Consumers already can scan bar codes in stores to compare prices with their mobile phones.  Best Buy has been having problems with people using their stores to browse products and then purchase them at lower price on-line.  If this problem affects a big player like Best Buy, known as Showrooming, what do you think this is going to do to your business?   This is why I think you should look into how E₃ can help you.  We have a full line of software products which will help you manage inventory, track sales leads, and now we are offering an inexpensive "Digital Handshake" which makes it possible for you to have Microsoft Tag or QR codes which you can promote your business.  Now you save money on business cards by having people scan your "Digital Handshake" and it will automatically place you as a contact on your customer's phone. 

We have made an effort to make this process simple and easy.  We will even offer a discount to members of the Joliet Chamber of Commerice who are interested in trying this new innovation.  In this new economy of mobile phones and cloud computing you need every advantage you can get. 

Contact us today to learn more. 

Until Next time.

Predictions for 2013

We are looking forward to the new year are you?

In spite of being a technical professional and owning and operating my own software company, I still can't do my own car repairs.  This gives me an opportunity to spend some time at the local car repair shop talking with other people who can't fix their cars.  The conversations inevitably turn to our careers and when others find out that I run a technology company they ask what they can expect from the world of tech.  I tell them that my opinions are not gospel but that I have a pretty good idea about what is coming up in the immediate future.  This week in the spirit of looking forward to the New Year, I want to make some predictions.  Hopefully, I will not look too foolish when some of my predictions don't come true.

In 2012 there were two major trends which could not be ignored; first, the rise of mobile computing and finally the ascent of the cloud as a computing platform.  When I first discussed the subject in earnest back in December 2011, I was looking at a trend that was just starting to grow.  Now you cannot go anywhere without hearing the term cloud.  People have even started developing myths about cloud based computing.  For 2013, I continue to see this trend grow and it is a perfect opportunity for a firm like mine to help small and medium sized businesses learn to compete with the big boys. 

Next the line between mobile computing and desktop computing is blurring.  This has driven all sorts of changes in 2012.  More and more of us get our information over phones and table devices so web developers, technologists, and even CIO's and learning if they are going to survive they will have to adapt to this mobile world.  Again, this major trend in the industry finds this firm perfectly positioned to deal with the situation.  Our applications have to work on computers, smart phones, and tablets otherwise we are doing a disservice to our customer.  I also feel that young people are even more comfortable with mobile technology than current business leaders so if we are going to tap this customer market we are going to have to build software they are going to use.  Microsoft with Windows 8 is a huge gamble on this front and while the news wasn't good early going I think they are perfectly positioned for a renaissance in the coming year.

Here are some other predictions that I think might take place in the New Year. 

• Cash is not going away:  We have all seen the articles about how debit cards, NCF, and Google Wallet are going to make cash obsolete.  Don't count on it.  We are going to need cash for night clubbing, casinos, children's lemonade stands, and groceries.  Cash will become less important but it will not become obsolete. 
• Agile will continue to grow in the startup community and face obstacles in established businesses:  I am running into this problem now in my day job.  It is clear that business leaders for large firms are frightened by the cultural changes and organizational changes necessary to make Agile work so it will take startups and big dogs like Facebook, Google and IBM to show them how it is done.  Until a company fully embraces Agile and starts squashing the competition there will be a deep reluctance on the part of other large firms.  Then it will be up to us to deal with the copy cats.
• QR Codes and MS Tag will find a home- in logistics and manufacturing:  QR codes and Microsoft tag came from manufacturing and they will return to their roots because marketing firms have been horrible at using these technologies.  I am pretty proud that we are leading this trend.
• E3 systems will be expanding our focus:  We will continue to support and market our Sully 2.0 software but we are branching out with other software offerings.  We are also going to start providing Business Solutions Architecture for small and medium sized businesses.   I am going to talk more about Business Solutions Architecture in our next blog. 
• Finally, E3 systems will continue to be a partner in the Agile Community on Google+ and a member of the Microsoft Application Lifecycle Management community:  We learn so much from these groups and in exchange it is nice to share my wisdom with them so we will have a continuing partnership with them.  

This last year has not turned out like we expected.  However, I am deeply grateful for the experiences and support we have received from the community.  I hope that 2013 is a breakthrough year for us and that you will be along to share it with us. 

Until next time.

Use Technology to Help Your Business

You might need some technology
Elves this season.

We are in the middle of the holiday season and this is the time many businesses rush to meet their sales goals or take stock of the year.  At E₃ systems it is a chance to take stock.  We are prospecting for customers, doing market research, and keeping people up to date via social media.  I am confident that when the New Year arrives we will be in a good place to grow our business.

This week I noticed an interesting article from Farhad Manjoo about how retailers deal with the crush of customers which come out during the weekend after thanksgiving.  The interesting part about the article is that more traditional retailers appear to struggle compared with more technology oriented retailers like Amazon.com.  After reading the article, it is clear to me that the reason for the success of technology firms is that they focus on the management of their business from the most fundamental levels while more traditional ones struggle to adapt more modern ways of customer satisfaction.

So as you attempt to better serve your customers, wouldn't it be nice if you had tools to answer simple customer questions.  This is why cloud based Business Intelligence platforms like our Sully 2.0 system should be something you should investigate.  Being able to see inventory via a tablet computer, laptop, PC or smart phone would be a huge advantage over competitors.  Having Microsoft Tag technology for your products makes it possible for you to avoid spending thousands dollars for bar coding equipment.  Processing purchase orders, invoices, and packing slips over the cloud frees up time for focus on your business instead of paperwork. 

This was why I founded E₃ systems because I want to help make other small business more successful by giving them technology which helps them to better serve their customers.  If you are a small business you cannot take your customers for granted.  I feel that we give you plenty of tools to better serve those customers.  Drop us a line and we will show you how. 

Until next time.

A Trillion Dollar Trend

One Trillion of anything is huge.

I hope that everyone had a good holiday weekend.  During the time off, I stumbled upon an interesting article about Silicon Valley investment banker, Sanu Desai. For those who don't know who this individual is, he helped Amazon go public back in 1997.  As a venture capital banker he seems to know where all the bodies are buried in Silicon Valley and all the latest trends regarding money.  He said something this week which is directly relevant to our business this week.  The times are changing and we are about to the transfer of over one TRILLION dollars from companies involved in business to consumer products to companies involved in business to business products.  This is good news because it is part of a trend which we caught early.

E₃ systems has been pioneering a new cloud based systems which makes it possible to track your invoices, bills of lading, purchase orders and inventory online.  This is perfect for small and medium sized businesses.  You don't need to install software.  You don't need to purchase expensive servers and you don't have to worry about hassling with software upgrades.  We take care of this.  We are also perfectly focused on business users who don't have a lot of time for training their people to use new systems.  This is what makes Desai's commentary so heartening.  The technology business has spent the last twenty years making life easier for consumers.  Now it is time to make life easier for business owners. 

As technology has gotten to resemble magic more and more it is becoming hard for the small and medium sized business to provide the same kind of customer service which larger companies provide.  This is a big deal because you are now at a competitive disadvantage.  What I felt was needed was a technology service which makes it possible to provide the same tools the big firms have at a fraction of the cost.  What makes this even more important is that consumers are becoming more technologically savvy.  They will just take it for granted that they can track their products online and via mobile phones. 

This is where the one trillion dollars of wealth transfer comes from.  Larger firms like Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft will not be able to fill this important business niche. And so it will be up to smaller companies like mine to fill in the gap.  So E₃ systems is competing for over a trillion dollars of money up for grabs.  If we receive just a fraction of it then we will have accomplished our mission. 

If you want to learn more about how you can be part of this growing trend please give us a call we will be glad to help. 

I can't even fathom a trillion dollars of wealth.  There has never been a trillionare in the history of human kind.  Still it is hard to ignore when this amount of money is moving in your direction.  It is nice to know you are part of a positive trend rather than swimming against the tide.  I look forward to having you join us. 

Until next time.

A Moment of Clarity

This is not how we do business. 

Business people are idealized and vilified in equal measure.  For every Geroge Bailey there is a Gordon Gekko, I live in the world of business people.  I have been fortunate to know good business people and I have been cursed to work for a lot of the bad ones.  After a particularly bad day at the office, I sat in my cubical in utter misery.  It was what alcoholics call a moment of clarity.   I decided that I was going to become a business person and I was going to make sure that no one who ever worked for me felt as rotten as I did that moment.

This was why I founded E₃ systems.  I wanted to make business easier for other entrepreneurs by streamlining their shipping and receiving work.  I wanted them to have the power of a Fortune 500 company at a fraction of the price.  I also wanted the system to work over the web so that they could transact business away from the office and spend time with their family and friends.

It was a noble goal and we are going to continue to pursue it.  This week we are releasing another batch of improvements to Sully 2.0.  One of them features the ability to filter addresses so they are easier to find.  We are also coming out with a series of new videos which will show you use our systems. 

It is an exciting time and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Until next time.

Now We Support Labels

No Mystery we support Avery Labels

The key to any successful organization is to do the most amount of work in the least amount of time with the maximum level of profit.  It is one of the first principles they teach you in business school and it says with you throughout your entire career.  This week at Dirty fingers we want to discuss one of our newest features for Sully 2.0 which makes this possible; label printing.

I have discovered that many businesses which do shipping and receiving spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to print shipping labels for their products.  This usually requires a mail merge using Microsoft office and trial and error with Avery forms.  We were speaking with a business group and one of the topics which came up was how difficult it was to print Avery shipping labels. 

It took us over a year to come up with a good approach but we finally figured out a way to do it and now we support the printing of Avery 8160, 8164 and 22805 forms directly from the web.  You do not need Microsoft Office or know how to do a mail merge.  Now you just print your labels directly off the web and on to your forms. 

This is a huge time savings because now you just point and click.  This way you can place Microsoft Tags on products and shipping labels on packages with no effort. 

We are pretty proud of this innovation so give us a call and we will be happy to show you. 

Until next time.