Professionalism and Developers Part 1

Developers see the world differently.

I have spent a long time working in the software business.  I was not very good as a software developer until I did it professionally for ten years.   Today, I still consider myself a mid-level developer in terms of skill.  What set me apart later in my career was the professionalism I brought to the job.  Documentation would get written, time cards would get filled out, and I spent a lot of time over-communicating with management and stakeholders.  As I moved into project management, scrum mastery, and leadership, I noticed that software developers struggle with professional behavior patterns, which other business professionals have internalized.  We should discuss this.

The subject of professionalism is a touchy one in software engineering.  If you look at the history of the profession, it is easy to see why.  Bill Pflegin and Minda Zetlin, in their book, “The Geek Gap,” points out business people and technology people see the world from two different frames of reference.  A business person wants to be likable and profitable.  If you are agreeable, others are more receptive to your product which you are selling.  Thus, business people are very focused on being likable.  Engineers are not concerned with being likable.  The most important thing for an engineer is to make sure things work.  An engineer spends most of their time wrestling with the rules of physics or computer science to get things to work faster, better, and more reliably.  Something works, or it does not, and this binary view of the world and their career is often disorienting to business people.

Next, developers since the 1950s have a deep affinity for counter-cultural movements.  Beatnik, Hippie, Anarchist, Libertarian, and Punk mindsets permeate the culture of programming.  The let it all hang out attitude of developers is similar to the approach of Jazz musicians.  Hair color or politics does not matter; what matters is technical ability and the respect it generates.  It is why we have engineers with “UNIX beards” because they honor other engineers for the work they have done, and they do not care what business people think.  Someone like this does not have to care about being likable because they build things that work and keep the organization going. 

Finally, developers are more creative and intelligent than the average business person.  Creative people are alienating to people who are not.  Creative professionals are deeply suspicious of authority and rules.  Combine these two factors, and it is natural to see how business people and engineers distrust each other.  It is also why engineers chafe at the rules, regulations, and notion of professionalism.  To the engineer, professionalism is the curtain that hides the inability to solve problems and make things work.

There are three key reasons why developers and engineers do not behave as professionally as other business people.  First, they see the world differently and judge their value from a different frame of reference.  Next, developers embrace sub-cultures that do not respect authority.  An engineer or developer appreciates accomplishment or skill.  Finally, developers being more creative and intelligent, often chafe at rules made by others.  These three ingredients combine into a perfect stew of unprofessional behavior.  I will talk about how to work with these realities in my next blog.

Look forward to seeing you then.

Until next time.

 

Experience Matters in a Scrum Coach

Leadership experience is not pretty but necessary

Plenty of issues crop up in the day to day life of a scrum master.  Impediments need to be resolved and each day you are a living example of how Scrum is supposed to work.  As a fellow coach, Ryan Ripley remarked on how some individuals with little experience with agile are marketing themselves as coaches.  Ryan feels pretty strongly about the subject, and so do I.

There are two lines of thought about leadership.  The first school is called the “great man theory.”  This school firmly believes that great leaders are not made but are born.  This notion has been used for generations to support monarchs and other forms of tyranny.  For each leader born into greatness, there are numerous counterexamples of individuals who fall woefully short.  There is also an elitism and snobbishness associated with this school of leadership which says that only specific groups can aspire to leadership.  I also find this type of thinking has plenty of sexist and racist baggage associated with it.

The second school of thought is the notion that leadership can be taught just like any other skill.  I am a firm supporter of this idea.  When I was a teenager, I benefited from leadership training from Boy Scouts of America and Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.  I had the Boy Scout Law ingrained into my personality at an early age.  The outdoor activities forced me to learn to help younger scouts cope with being alone and away from home for the first time.  Being caught in a rainstorm surrounded by wet and tired twelve-year-olds is a good measure of your leadership skills.

Marine Corps JROTC taught me self-discipline, my left form my right and that leadership is more about credibility than shouting at people.  I met some remarkable people.  David Ogle was a survivor of combat around the Chosin reservoir and a USMC boxing champion.  He served in Vietnam and became a Sergeant Major.  Richard Weidner was a company commander in Vietnam and taught me about the less than glamorous things leaders have to do.

Together, Boy Scouts and Marine JROTC gave me a good foundation from which to build.  I took that knowledge with me into the sales profession, the casino business, radio, and finally into technology.  I am entering the fifth year of being a scrum master.  The experience of shipping software at the end of each sprint changes a person and their style of leadership.  Working with offshore teams changes how you relate to others.  Those experiences make you a better scrum master and coach.

We can teach leadership, in my opinion.  I also feel experience acts as a multiplier of leadership skill.  A good leader does not ask someone to do something which they would not do themselves.  That means if you ask a developer to write a unit test you better be willing to write a few of your own.  An agile coach who has not led a retrospective or shipped code is not a coach because they lack the practical skills to make agile successful.  They are faux coaches, and you should steer clear of them.  An agile transformation is like performing a heart transplant on a person running a marathon; you would not trust that job to a first-year medical student.  Anyone can call themselves a coach, it takes time and experience to be a valuable coach

Until next time.

The first customer

We keep on trucking.

As an entrepreneur, you face plenty of discouraging feedback.  The website is too wordy.  The blog only comes out once a week.  I should hire a staff of 24/7 sales people.  You name it and I have heard plenty of unsolicited guidance.  This week, I want to share some direction I received from a friend.

This life of an entrepreneur is lonely.  You spend most of your time pitching your product and chasing your dream.  People at parties get tired of you making elevator pitches.  People who you call regularly get fed up and stop returning your calls.  It is a life of rejection.  I would be lying if I said that it did not affect me.  This weekend I was spending time with friends and one of them who owns a small print show said which made a world of sense, “The first customer is the hardest.”

My doubt fell away and I understand; the first customer is always the hardest.  I am going to fail and make mistakes.  In the end, it will not matter because it lead to that first customer.  We hope you are interested in being that firm.  We offer two exciting tools Sully 2.0 for warehouse management and Tony for fleet maintenance.  Contact us today if you would like to know more.

The road of an entrepreneur is lonely but for a brief moment it did not  feel so bad.  I look forward to the journey.

Until next time.

Our Values Mater.

We think about our values each day.

E₃ systems suffered a major loss last week as the founders experienced a death in the family and took time off for the funeral.  If you have visited the company web site, one of our company values is respect.  With the passing of one of our founder’s relatives, it only seemed right to take time off and pay our respects.  During this difficult time, I reflected on my values and the values of the company I founded.  This week on the blog I want to discuss those reflections.

I founded this company three years ago out of frustration with my technology career.  I spent too much time in meetings and taking orders from people who could not use a mouse.  I concluded, in this fit of career darkness, I would found my own business and help others use technology to improve their business.  It was a crazy dream but I was determined to see it through.  Since then, I spent countless hours writing software and meeting with potential clients.  I have affectionately referred to the company as my mistress.  We have released two major software projects in that time and we are launching sales efforts to support those products.

Along with coding, I spent a great deal of time to think about what kind of company I wanted to build.  I wanted a firm where people respected each other, the customer and the communities they server.  I wanted to be able to grow so that I could reward our stake holders and employees.  I look forward to hiring my first employee and the only way that is going to happen is by growing and improving sales.  When we hit that first million dollars in revenue we will let you know.

The other two values of E₃ systems are agility and development.  I strongly believe that to be successful a company needs to respond to customer demands.  This is why I have embraced the agile manifesto and why agility is one of my corporate values.  If you do not like something we are doing give us two weeks and it will change.  This is one of the reasons why smaller firms seem to be having more success that larger ones in today’s environment.

Finally, I believe strongly in personal development of my employees.  Unlike traditional businesses a good technology company demands that its employees get smarter and better at what they do. A technology worker needs to relearn their job every eighteen month. Each employee, should learn how to be better at what they do and become more knowledgeable of the world around them.  Continuing education and training just makes sense as the world becomes more complex.  People are not machine tools to be used up and then thrown away.  Only be investing in people and helping them develop will you be a successful postmodern business.

I strongly believe in these values; growth, agility, development, and respect.  I have place them on my company website and I have struggled to live them as I have launched my business.  This organization counts on two things the quality of our product and the trust of our customers.  If we do not have those then we deserve to fail.

We know that in order to earn your trust and provide quality we have to have values consistent with theat.   I know we do.  So reflecting on this journey, I can say we are doing it the right was and look forward to future success.

Until next time.

Reaching Out for Fourth Quarter

We are reaching out this quarter.

The life of an entrepreneur is one of constant tension. Customers need to be courted.  The operations of the business can become the center of your life.  Finally, bad news from the bank or the government can ruin your future plans.  I am an entrepreneur and this week on the blog I want to discuss where we are going in the next few months.

Two weeks ago we released our Fleet Maintenance software Tony.  We think that it would be a good solution for any firm with a fleet of vehicles they need to maintain.  So if you are responsible for a group of school buses or have over hundred tracker trailers on the road we think this would be a great means to stay on top of your maintenance.  We also spoke with some potential customers and who felt that this software could also be a huge benefit of to the agriculture community because there was no good means to track maintenance and hours of operation.

This means that we are going to be reaching out the local farm bureaus to showcase our product.  We are also reaching out to the trucking community to promote our products.  I am also happy to announce that we will have more YouTube videos promoting our products and we will leverage our association with the Joliet Chamber of Commerce.

This means that fourth quarter of 2013 is going to be a busy time for us. If you want to get involved please contact us today.  The entrepreneurial adventure continues and I would love to have you join us.

Until next time.

Making Sense of Software as a service.

Software as a service makes sense.

Last week I spoke about how the mobile web is a growing concern for your small business.  This week, I wanted to share with you another important trend in business.  Software to the public is being offered as a service.

The software as a service or SaaS, as people say in the technology field, has been around for over fifteen years.  What has changed is the technology has caught up with the theory.  Large cloud servers and access to broadband networks make it possible to perform some powerful computing from anywhere in the world at a low cost.  What this means for you the small business person is that instead of purchasing software like a book now you will subscribe to it like a magazine.

Already, Adobe, the makers of Photoshop have adopted this model.  E₃ systems is using this model for our customers.  We do this for three reasons.  First, the customer is no longer responsible for upgrades they come free of charge with the subscription.  Next the software becomes device agnostic.  It will work on a mobile phone, tablet or PC.  Finally, the user can access the software anytime or anywhere rather than the device they install it on.

When I visit small offices, I notice plenty of old versions of software lying about.  Computers with Microsoft office have versions scattered over the last decade randomly placed on computers in the office.  One computer is deliberately on an outdated operating system because they do not know if the software installed will upgrade.  With software as a service this problem goes away.  When there is a new upgrade it is part of the machines subscribed to the service automatically reflecting the changes.  You as the user do not have to do anything.  The updates just show up on the system.

When a software vendor says something is device agnostic what that are saying is that the software will work the same way on a phone, tablet, or a PC.  It should also work on a PC or a Macintosh.  As a small or medium sized business you should not be bothered with different packages and tools depending on what device you use.  Software as a service comes to the rescue again.  E₃ systems Sully 2.0 service makes it possible to use our software on a mobile phone, tablet or PC with no additional software to buy or install.

Finally, the business world is changing and becoming a 24/7 enterprise; for a small business on the web that means that customers will call for help anytime.  In order to do business in this environment, you cannot spend your entire life in the office so you need to bring the office with you.  This is where software as a service really shines because you can access your information anywhere you have a connection to the web.  This way a customer call on a Sunday does not spoil your entire weekend because you can address your customer’s needs and get back to your family and friends.

Those are the reason we do software as a service.  We understood this trend before it became a headline and we know it will work for you.  Contact us today and find out more.

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.

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.

Giving Thanks this Time of Year

Give thanks and then pig out!

During this time of year, there are lots of reasons to be grateful.  The holiday demands that people take stock of their lives and families and what they have to be thankful for.  This year, I want to make a few mentions. 

I am deeply grateful for statin drugs.  With some luck, statins may break the cycle of heart attacks which runs in my family.  I am glad for clean drinking water.  Too many people do not have clean water to drink and I am grateful that I live somewhere where that is not a problem.  Finally, I am glad that the election is over and we can stop fighting about politics and get back to growing our economy. 

On a more personal note, I want to thank Mike Panone and the Joliet Chamber of Commerce providing me help and guidance.  I also have to thank my board of directors; Jen Green, John Zalanka, and my father for keeping me focused during some difficult times this year.  Finally, I want to thank each of you for following this blog and supporting us over the coming year. 

Contact us if you want to learn more about our Sully 2.0 software.  I look forward to more adventures in the coming year. 

Until next time.

Business Should Be Easy

Find out how we can make business easier.

Business is a difficult activity.  Each day you are grubbing for customers attempting to improve profits and build better services.  So why are you spending your time rifling through paperwork?  This week we want to discuss paperwork and how we can help.

If you are selling goods and services you have to generate invoices.  If you are shipping goods you need packing slips and bills of lading.  Finally, all the goods and services require labels in order for them to make it to their customers via the mail.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could take care of all this without having to hire additional staff? 

At E₃ systems with our Sully 2.0 system does make this possible.  We also use Microsoft Tag technology so that you don't have to purchase expensive bar coding equipment and you can stay on top of what is going on from your office via a mobile phone, tablet computer or laptop.

We want to give you more time to spend on your business and your family.  That is why we created this system for you.  Business shouldn't have to be difficult. 

Drop us a line and we will contact you with more information. 

Until next time.

Full Frontal Business Intelligence

Smart and Good looking systems are what we
are all about.

This week was a milestone of sorts at E₃ systems.  We had our second board meeting and it was a serious sober affair where over a few bottles of water and some store bought cookies we plotted out our path for the next year.  I do not know where I would be without the guidance and support of my board and it was nice to talk about our accomplishments and challenges over the last year.

As always we talked about marketing and sales.  Any small business person will tell you that this could always be better.  After some back and forth among the board members it dawned on us that our Sully 2.0 is more than a logistics platform it is a business Intelligence Platform.  This makes it possible for a small business to manage themselves just like a Fortune 500 company for a minimal cost. 

One of the biggest headaches of a business is keeping track of how much you have on hand.  Our Sully 2.0 system does this by saving all your information on the cloud and then pulling it down for reporting purposes.  This means no matter where you are; at the office, meeting with a client, or on vacation if you have a connection to the web then you can see your inventory at the drop of a hat.  Not only do you know how much you have on hand but how much you paid for it and what type of department of transportation regulations cover that material. 

We make it possible to print up packing slips, bills of lading and invoices based on this information.  We are also proud to announce that it is now possible to print shipping labels with Avery® label technology.  No more typing up peal and stick labels for your products Sully 2.0 can print out 5160 and 5164 Avery® labels right off the web without having to use Microsoft Word or a third party program.  This speeds up the business and makes it easier to manage shipping and receiving.

Furthermore you get more full frontal business intelligence when you leverage our Microsoft Tag technology which makes it possible to do bar coding without expensive equipment.  Now every piece of paper you have can communicate with your mobile phone.  This is a free of charge service and we include it so that you can view information about your products anywhere in the world on any smart phone. 

Finally, we make it possible to put together purchase orders and incorporate them into your business with our purchase order piece.  You order an item and you can e-mail it or fax it out to your vendor and when you receive it they can add it inventory with a click.  No more lost faxes.  No more playing phone tag with vendors and no more double counting when you get it into the office. 

In spite of our board meeting being a very sober affair most of us were pretty excited when it was over.  We have a great product.  We have a marketing plan.  We also have an easy to use and economical business intelligence package which can be used everywhere.  We have full frontal business intelligence and we are not afraid to show it off.  Contact us to learn more. 

Until next time.

Dealing with Darkness

How to you stare into the darkness?

Being an entrepreneur can give you huge moments of light and tremendous moments of darkness and despair.  Currently, I am in one of those moments of despair as I fill out grant paperwork, solicit customers, and try to grow the business.  Everything came to a crashing halt this week after a trade show; I was burned out and decided to take a few days off and unplug.

I left my mobile phone at home, took off in the car and didn’t answer email or twitter for almost three days.  It was very refreshing and gave me a chance to take stock in my life and try to put things in perspective.  I have dreams of being my own boss.  Those dreams are still real.  They just seem further away because I have not had the chance to concentrate on it full time.   I am going to try and focus this dream and try to make it a success.

We will be doing a website redesign, hire an additional sales person, and try to drum up our first client. Many people go into business for different reasons.  My main goal was to escape the insanity of corporate life.  I also want to be a different kind of business person someone with a product that works and who respects the community he works in.  It sounds like a fantasy but it is one I hold dearly.  Business can be a force for good in the community and I think I am just the kind of business person to do it. 

In that vein of thought, E₃ systems is participating in J.P.Morgan Chase’s Mission Small business program and we hope that you promote ushere accordingly.  We will also be reaching out for grants, aid and customers where we can get them.

I hope you will take some time to support us and grant us a little bit of light during our dark times. 

Until next time.

Sully 2.0

To look at the features of Sully 2.0 scan the tag. 
You will be glad you did.

Today is the launch of Sully 2.0. It is the product of almost eighteen months of work and countless refinements suggested by potential clients. With its release we shall be pushing for sales and make our mark on the small business software market. In this blog, I want to talk about the specific features that set Sully 2.0 apart from traditional software offerings for small business.

The most important feature of Sully 2.0 is that we are leveraging the power of cloud computing like no other company. This means you can do more for less money. When comparing software systems on the market we discovered that many of our competitors required you to install new servers and software to use their systems. We do not. All you need is a connection to the internet and a standard web browser. We have tested our application with Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Google Chrome. If you have any of these web browsers it will work. By using our system, you have already saved thousands of dollars in unnecessary hardware.

Next we have made bar coding easy for products by leveraging Microsoft Tag technology for you to place two dimensional bar codes on any product or piece of paperwork. You don't need any special bar code scanners or technology. All you need is a smart phone with the Microsoft Tag application which is freely available. Tag works with Android, IPhone and Windows 7 mobile phones so now anyone in your office with the correct permissions can barcode scan items and follow inventory or pieces of paperwork. This saves you hundreds of dollars because now you do not need to purchase bar coding equipment.

The application makes it possible to track bills of lading, invoices, packing slips and purchase orders with the click of a mouse or a swipe on your mobile phone. This means you don't have to be in the office in order to do business. Now you can be meeting with clients face to face and tell them exactly how much you have on hand to sell. You can follow up on a shipment from your laptop and if there is a billing dispute you can check to see who is responsible for the freight. It gives you the freedom to run your business without losing track of your paperwork.

Finally, this system is easy to use and expand. You can start with a few products and grow to handle hundreds of thousands of items. For less than the price of cable television, you can have a system which makes it possible for you to manage your shipping and inventory just like a Fortune 500 company. We are pretty proud of this accomplishment and this that it is the right tool at the right time to help you grow your business and satisfy your customers.

Normally, I don't want to hard sell my products but I think that you will like what we have to offer and should tell your friends and colleagues. Scan the tag on the page, share this blog with friends and feel free to tweet about our services. We are trying to make logistics software easy to use and economical and we hope you can help us on this journey.

Until next time.

Sully 2.0 Coming May 7th

I began E₃ Systems over a year ago.  In that time, I have made over eighteen upgrades to our product Sully®.  I have hired a sales person, put together a board of directors, and learned numerous lessons the hard way.  I am proud of this company and what it stands for.  Now we are ready for the release of Sully® 2.0.

The new version of the software has a lot going for it.  The interface is cleaner, customers can manage purchase orders with a mouse click and it works on all tablet computers and smart phones.  We will launch this product May 7th, 2012.

This makes Sully® 2.0 the most affordable and complete inventory management system on the market.  Any type of device with an internet connection makes it possible to view bills of lading, manage packing slips, and leverage Microsoft Tag technology to create bar codes which work with any smart phone.

We are redoubling our sales efforts and we are going to be posting videos all over social media.  Sully® 2.0 is coming and you are not going to believe your eyes.

Until Next Time.

Never Good Enough

Being creative is fun but mighty frustrating
in the world of web development

The other night I was meeting with a potential client.  We discussed his needs and how our Sully® application could help him.  It was a very positive experience.  The interesting thing was listening to the customer talk about the software. 

“That is cool,” he said, “but it would be even cooler if it did this!” 

That line has spawned millions of dollars in consulting fees and countless hours of frustration for developers.  It is the source of all feature creep in any project plan.  I felt a ball of bile welling up in my throat after hearing the client utter that phrase.  I took a deep breath and the madness subsided but it made me wonder if anything a software developer does is ever good enough.

I do not think it is a secret that developers are a quirky lot.  We are highly intelligent, have an in demand skill and often behave like professional baseball players jumping from team to team for better money and perks.  I also speak from experience that we often see ourselves like artists.  This explains why as a group we can get defensive about what we do.  Spending hours of effort to get something to work just right is emotionally exhausting.  When that effort is greeted with a shrug and the contempt of someone else it can drive a person crazy.

The feedback we often get from a business user is often inane and unhelpful.  You only have to watch a scene from the movie Amadeus to see a classic example of this criticism at work when the King of Austria tells Motzart his opera “…has too many notes in it.”

It has taken me over twenty years to learn how to deal with all kinds of customer feedback.  These lessons have been painful experiences found during bouts of unemployment and stress.  It amazes me that I did not discover them sooner. 

Business user approach software the same way many of us listen to popular music.  We don’t understand the technical details of how to play music but we know what we like.  So it doesn’t matter to most people that a song is being played in the 2/4 time or that it is in the key of G.  We just know that Credence Clearwater Revival's “Bad Moon of the Rise” is catchy.  So when we dislike a song we ofter have an emotional reaction to it rather than a rational one.  We can criticize it saying it lacks harmony and the minor key is off putting; instead we just say we don’t like it.  Often we sound like dancers on the old American Bandstand television program claiming “That song has a good beat and you can dance to it.”

Replace popular music with software and it is the same experience.  People interact with software much like they do with music.  I suppose that is why there are so many Linux and Apple fan boys.  This is why I do not get aggravated as I used to when someone suggests improvements to my software.  They know what they like and they are just having trouble describing it to me. 

I start asking questions of the customer and try to find out what they are looking for.  Eventually you will get a meaningful answer to your questions and know what to change.  I also know how serious about these improvements they are when I ask if they are willing to pay extra money for that service.  If the answer is "yes" then I know they are pretty serious. 

I have just come to accept that most software work is not good enough and that the users will always ask for something faster, better and cooler.  That is a good thing because this quest means that we are making better products which will create a virtuous cycle of innovation. 

I just wonder why it took me twenty years to figure this bit of wisdom out.

Until next time.

Waiting for clients

Hopefully I won't end up like didi and gogo.

The life of an entrepreneur is not for the meek.  My emotions pinwheel from manic to depressive daily and I push myself to exhaustion regularly and I spend more time working with software code than people.  I feel like the characters from the Samuel Becket theater production of "Waiting for Godot." Instead of Godot, I am looking for clients.

Landing you first set of clients is always hard but after six months of business, I expected to have landed a few by now.  Fortunately my daytime job is keeping the lights on and my sales person is starting to make some progress.  Who knows, I might have a few contracts by the end of the quarter. 

Just because we are slow to gather clients does not mean we are slowing down.  There is another release of Sully® coming in two weeks.  Members of our board of directors are pitching in finding sales and producing YouTube videos to promote our product. 

I am very fortunate that I get a chance to chase this dream.  The lack of sleep and mood swings are just a down payment on success later on down the road.  I look forward to when the note comes due because I beats waiting for Godot!

Until next time.

Why you need Sully

Meet Sully, the software to help manage you inventory

I spend a great deal of time writing code and blogging about business.  At this stage of my career, I spend my days writing software for someone else and my evening working on my company.  It is a grind but I hope that my efforts now will translate into success later.  One can only hope.

Our main product at E₃ systems is called Sully®. With it you can keep track of your inventory and generate all the necessary documents to help run your business.   If you ship a lot of product we make it possible to create bills of Lading, packing slips, and invoices for your customers.  In addition, we make it possible to review that information anywhere you have a connection to the internet.  This is a big deal because most inventory systems only work when you are connected to your local network.

We make it possible for your sales force to know exactly what is in stock when they go to meet clients.  They can view that information on a smart phone or a tablet computer.  This is the beauty of a cloud based application.  You save time because you can view inventory and product information anywhere at any time.  If a customer has an inquiry you pull up the information on your smart phone.  Now you can concentrate on customer service instead of sorting through paperwork.

There is also a money saving component.  With the Sully® web application, you can track the turnover of product.  Inventory is now a breeze as we generate easily printable reports to help your pickers perform counts quickly.  You never have to scan a document again because any paper document communicates with your smart phone using Microsoft Tag Technology.  Finally, since this system is cloud based you subscribe to it like electricity or cable television.  Instead of having to purchase a server, software and a staff to maintain it, you can now allow us to manage your system for you.  This makes a huge difference and helps you concentrate on running your business instead of worrying about your inventory management software.

E₃ systems offers you a product which will save you both time and money. It can be used anywhere you have a web connections.  It can be used by most types of devices weather a PC, laptop, tablet computer, or smart phone.  Finally, you can have this entire time and money savings for the cost of cable television.

If you think this is a good deal then give drop us a line via e-mail at mail@goeeethree.biz  Myself or one of my sales people will be more than happy to help.

Until next time.

Selling It

I am NOT John Galt but Ayn Rand
would still like me.

October is a challenging month for anyone.  It is the start of fourth quarter which drives retail and sales organizations toward a mad rush to profitability.  In the IT world, managers looking to impress their betters push their departments harder hoping to get the most out of them.  I am no different.  I am firmly fixed in two worlds.  I am building my business while at the same time trying to work as a mild mannered software developer during the day. 

In this span of about three weeks I have learned a little about myself.  I am not super human.  I need sleep and food like everyone else.  I also learned that I need to push myself harder than I have in the past because if I am going to break through the clutter of what people are selling I need to make an impression. 

This is the month; I joined the chamber of commerce in my community.  I walked into their office and showed off my Sully® product and they asked me to join right away.  I am pretty proud of that because there is usually a vetting process.  In addition, I have a big trade show this week and I want to close at least one client before the New Year.  It is pretty exciting. 

Many people ask me what I am selling, let me try to explain.  I have noticed for the last few years that many small and medium sized businesses are keeping track of invoices, bills of lading, and packing slips with plain paper and pencil.  Inventory is often managed with index cards or excel spreadsheets; no one had authored a set of tools which could do inventory and warehouse management.  This was a problem begging for a cloud based solution.

Over the last year, I began to write a web application which would work on smart phones, tablet computers and standard web browsers.  I called it Sully® to give it a little blue collar credibility.  Just over a year later I have a working piece of software and I am starting the sales process.  Ayn Rand would be very proud of me.  Like many cloud based applications it is low cost because I didn’t think a business should have to pay a lot of money to have a 21^st century inventory management system.  It is a dream come true but the reality is this is only the beginning.  Now I have to sell my creation. 

I will do my best to keep you posted and up to date on my progress.