Tag Archives: Louisville (Maryland)

About 2546 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

39 Great Business Bargains

Online Payment Processing If you don’t need a full-blown e-commerce solution, PayPal lets you accept credit card payments with a PayPal shopping cart. There are no setup charges and no monthly fees, just a transaction fee of 2 to 3 percent, plus 30 cents–about what credit card merchant-account processors charge. Payroll Services Outsourcing onerous payroll tasks is easy and quite affordable. For a flat monthly fee, online services such as surepayroll.com and paycycle.com do all the calculations, pay and file federal and state taxes, and make direct deposits into your employees’ bank accounts. PayCycle costs $45 to $73 per month for a company with 25 employees, regardless of how often you run payroll (50-employee maximum); Sure Payroll charges about $87 to process the monthly payroll for 25, and can cut payroll expenses by up to 50 percent. Playing Post Office All mail is not created equal, so if you’re paying equally for all of it, you’re probably paying too much. Go to usps.com/businessmail101 for a primer on the different classes of mail and an explanation of the many discounts available for bulk and presorted mail and for things like dropping mail off at a bulk mail center or a central post office. For flat non-letter-size mail, such as catalogs, simply presorting according to Zip code can save you up to 30 percent on postage, and you can save up to 10 cents per pound by dropping it all off at a bulk mail center. And remember, never send a letter if a post card will do–post cards cost 38 percent less to send than first-class mail. Montblanc Pen: because you don’t want to sign a multi-million dollar contract with a 50-cent pen Seal the deal with a more elegant instrument. Pen maker Montblanc distributes its wares through a small network of authorized dealers, so prices are pretty standardized. A new Montblanc StarWalker Ballpoint sells for $216, including shipping, at writewithstyle.com. That’s not a bad price, but you can do better. The recent eBay price was $142, with shipping–with several more up for bidding. Color, light, and air A fresh coat of paint might be the most cost-effective investment you can make in the look and feel of your workplace. And since paint is so cheap, you can always repaint if you’re not happy. For help finding a color scheme, do what professional designers do: Check out the free color forecasting reports published by the Color Marketing Group. To make sure your new color looks right, switch out harsh white fluorescents with “warm white” ones; their fuller-spectrum light will make everything look better. Finally, improve the indoor air quality with bargain-priced planters from big-boxers such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, warehouse clubs, or Ikea. Carpeting Buy or lease modular carpet tiles, such as those made by Interface. While regular roll carpet is cheaper to buy up front, modular tiles can pay off in the long run because rather than having to buy a whole new carpet, you can just replace the worn tiles. It’s easy to take the tiles with you if you move. Plus, they look a lot cooler. Software Put off software purchases until the end of the year, when you’ll find discounts on programs that are being released in new versions. You may also see discounts at the end of a financial quarter. There’s also plenty of free software out there available for download–from e-mail (Evolution) and e-commerce (osCommerce) to Web browsers (Firefox, Opera) and accounting (GnuCash). Two of the best sources of freeware are tucows.com and CNET’s Download.com. Cheap (and Eager) Labor Entrepreneurship is hot these days, and plenty of students are eager to get experience at growing companies. The key is to offer experiences that truly can’t be had at big corporations, such as real responsibility, individual mentoring, and access to decision makers. William Wright-Swadel, director of career services at Harvard University’s School of Arts and Sciences, suggests that companies build long-term relationships with career centers at local colleges and market themselves through campus events and organizations. On MonsterTrak, the largest student job and internship site, you can target your posting to the schools you want to recruit from; the site charges $30 per posting per school, with a discount for multiple postings. Wherever your job posting appears, get it in as early as possible; students typically start thinking about summer internships at the end of the fall term. And remember: Interns are cheap, but they’re not free. Generally, if you’re paying someone, you have to pay minimum wage; for unpaid internships, certain educational criteria often must be met. Check with your state’s labor department for the regulations in your area. Free Consulting Score, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, is a nonprofit partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration that provides free online counseling on everything from accounting to workflow analysis, provided by a volunteer corps of working and retired business owners and executives. Score also offers free one-on-one and team business counseling at 389 locations around the country; find the one closest to you at score.org. Copy, Right Mid-level business copiers can cost $5,000 and up. Because of the high entry cost, and the near certainty that the “latest technology” will be outdated in a year (if not six months), leasing–which often includes an option to upgrade and can cost as little as $50 a month–is usually more attractive. When signing a lease, make sure to clarify the service and repairs included, and what the response time will be. Beware of contracts that require a minimum or maximum monthly number of copies; work out pay-as-you-go terms instead. And remember, you don’t have to buy paper and toner from your copier supplier–you can usually save money by buying these from an office-supply source. And if you don’t expect to make more than 700 copies a month, you probably don’t need a “business” copier at all–you can get by with a combination printer-copier that costs a few hundred bucks. Ink & Toner Deals abound on generic, remanufactured, and even name-brand cartridges. There are numerous online office supply and ink specialty stores–InkSell.com, 4inkjets, Databazaar.com, and InkjetSuperstore.com–that often have better prices than the superstores and printer manufacturers. For example, in a recent search on comparison site NexTag, we found an HP Laserjet 2400 cartridge for $120; the same product retails for $206 at Office Depot. If you’re willing to use refurbished cartridges, you can pay as little as $70. Meanwhile, OfficeMax recently launched a nationwide refill program for inkjet cartridges, which could translate into cost savings of up to 50 percent. Best for Blogging WordPress.org provides a free, easy-to-use tool for adding an easy-to-update blog to your company’s existing website. If you want to go cheap–and skip a formal website altogether–blogger.com (owned by Google) and wordpress.com (not wordpress.org) will host your blog for free. The only drawback: The generic domain name (blogspot.com or wordpress.com) can look unprofessional. Office Furniture Check out dealer show rooms and keep tabs on any floor models you like. Come June, when NeoCon, the huge convention of office furniture manufacturers, takes place, dealers want to get new stuff on the floor–which can translate into good deals on old merchandise. Discounts of 20 percent or more are not uncommon. For general office furniture, check the lower-cost subsidiaries of the big manufacturers, such as Steelcase’s Turnstone line. And don’t forget eBay, where bargains on durable workplace basics abound. Here are some recent examples: 34 Steelcase telemarketing cubicles: $6,700; eight Herman Miller workstations: $3,995; 12 Steelcase office desks: $1,500. Paper, envelopes, pencils, staples and the rest Rather than buying different items from different vendors, consolidate your office-supplies shopping in one place. The big office superstores all offer online order management, free delivery for orders over $50, and loyalty rewards programs. In addition, OfficeMax Commercial Solutions and Staples Business Advantage are free programs that work like managed-travel programs, helping customers track and reduce total office-supply spending through more efficient ordering and discounts for volume buying. Office Depot offers similar services through its Business Services Division. Negotiating an Iron-Clad Shipping Contract The major package delivery companies–FedEx, UPS, DHL–are all competing for the small-business market. It’s up to you to meet with their reps and determine what services you need, which company best meets those needs, and which one offers the best deal. Beware of add-on charges for things like sending packages to nonurban areas and shipping fragile items; shippers today have more than 100 such charges, compared with about 30 five years ago. Many of these fees are negotiable, though it helps if you have what the shippers call “good shipping characteristics”–high volume, packages that tend to fall in the same size category (say, more than 100 pounds), and lots of deliveries to urban Zip codes (which are less expensive to deliver). Smart negotiating can shave 10 to 20 percent off your shipping bill, says Mike Erickson, president and CEO of AFMS, a consulting firm that specializes in evaluating and negotiating business shipping contracts. Indeed, if you do a lot of shipping, it makes sense to hire a consultant, as shipping contracts are often difficult for laypeople to decipher. A company car–plus a tax break Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, individuals and businesses that buy or lease a new hybrid gas-electric car or truck, or an alternative-fuel or fuel-cell vehicle, are eligible for an income-tax credit of up to $3,400, depending on the fuel economy and the weight of the vehicle. (This credit is in addition to the regular depreciation or lease expense you’re allowed to deduct for any vehicle.) If you buy more than one vehicle, you get a tax credit for each. This tax credit applies to vehicles “placed in service” beginning January 1, 2006. Once a manufacturer has sold 60,000 eligible vehicles, the tax credit for its cars will be reduced, and eventually eliminated. So get on it now. When buying a printer, check out the “print yield” A cheap inkjet may be easy on the wallet today, but it’ll end up costing you more later. That’s because with printers, it’s all about consumables–paper, toner, etc. For example, with a $300 laser printer and compatible cartridge, it costs $30 to print 1,000 pages (black ink only); with an $80 inkjet printer from the same manufacturer, the same print run costs $100. After a little more than 3,000 pages, the more expensive printer has paid for itself. Check out the “print yield” specs for the toner cartridges the printer requires, and divide the price by that number–that’s your cost per page. Let that number, not the cost of the printer, guide you to the real bargains. Retail Space Mall tenants may enjoy foot traffic, but that traffic comes with a steep price tag–incidental costs can run from $18 to $55 per square foot per year. Wherever you set up shop, scrutinize your lease for so-called pass-throughs–charges on top of the basic rent for things like common-area maintenance–and make sure you’re paying a share that’s proportionate to the actual square footage you’re occupying. Another way to save: Minimize your square footage in an expensive retail area by leasing storage space in a cheaper space off the premises. Stress-Free Employees Treating your staff to monthly massages may seem like a needless indulgence, but it can save you in the long run. Research shows that employees are more productive on quantitative tasks after massages and report feeling less stress. There is also, not surprisingly, less absenteeism on days that massages are scheduled. And because office massage specialists provide education about ergonomics and repetitive-stress injuries, you may reduce the costs of such injuries. A 15-minute seated massage–about the time of a coffee break–is all it takes to realize the benefits. On-site massage rates vary by location–expect hourly rates of about $75 and up in larger cities (a massage therapist will typically fit in three 15-minute massages per hour). Go to amtamassage.org and use the locator service to find a qualified provider in your area. Corporate jet: a good option for small groups It’s a bit of a stretch to call a company jet a bargain, but look at the upside. There’s no penalty for booking last minute, so it’s attractive if you make spur-of-the-moment trips. And since jet operators charge by the hour, not per person, a private flight can be a good option for flying small groups (midsize jets can accommodate about eight). Full or fractional ownership requires laying out millions up front, but Sentient and Blue Star Jets‘ SkyCard program offer membership plans that give you planes on demand for less than the cost of fractional or outright ownership. With both companies, you make an initial deposit (minimum $100,000 for Sentient, $50,000 for Blue Star) and funds are deducted as you use flight time (hourly fees start at about $2,000). Deals on PCs Comparison shopping is a no-brainer. But with PCs, you’ll be surprised at how large the price variations are for identical products. A recent search on comparison-shopping site NexTag, for example, turned up about 20 different vendors offering new Toshiba Portege R200 laptops for prices ranging from $1,162 to $2,159. Another useful tool is NexTag’s “Price Drops” section, which tracks the market in a range of tech categories and reveals, for example, that in April, the best price for an IBM Thinkpad T43P abruptly dropped 25 percent. Travel Tips Travel is typically a company’s second or third largest controllable expense, and one way to control it is to implement a managed-travel program. Most of the online booking services have launched programs for small companies. Expedia Corporate Travel ($149 a year) and Orbitz for Business (fees vary according to use) drive down travel expenses by 10 percent or more by lowering transaction fees (an average of $5 per ticket, compared with about $30 for traditional agencies) and negotiating discounted rates with airlines, hotels, and rental car companies. Obviously, the larger the company, the larger the discount a travel service can negotiate. But in some markets, just being able to offer an airline or hotel a 10 percent incremental increase in your company’s business can be a potent bargaining tool. American Express’ small-business travel program (starts at $500 a year; $100 for small-business cardholders) offers discounts on airfares of up to 15 percent on domestic flights and 35 percent on international trips. AmEx also promises to beat any fare you find online. Website Hosting and Design Some broadband providers offer free hosting with their service. If yours doesn’t, consider one of these low-cost options, all of which include easy-to-use design and e-commerce tools and templates to get your site up and running quickly. Yahoo Hosting and domain registration: $12 per month and up E-commerce: $40 to $300 per month, depending on sales volume Homestead Hosting and domain registration: $20 to $50 per month (plus $20 setup fee) E-commerce: $7 to $60 per month Microsoft Office Live Hosting and domain registration: Basic service is free; added features cost $30 a month Web Traffic Analysis Google Analytics is a free and useful Web analytics tool–if you can get it. Right now there’s a waiting list that doesn’t seem to be budging. Fortunately, Google is far from your only affordable option. Check out ClickTracks‘ Analyzer, a basic hosted service that charges $49 per month (or buy the software for $495); Web analytics program SmarterStats 3.0, free for use on a single website (available at download.com); StatCounter, free for up to 250,000 page views; and Site Meter, which starts at $9.95 per month. Numerous free trial versions of other programs are available, too–which can at least hold you over if you decide to wait for your Google spot to open up. Industrial Space Even in the information age, manufactured goods can’t telecommute. That’s why industrial space–factories, warehouses, distribution centers–always costs more the closer it is to large population and transportation centers. Prices decline the farther out you move, but then transportation costs go up–so what appears to be a bargain often is not. The right balance is easiest to strike in less pricey “second-tier” cities such as Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville, as well as on the fringes of primary markets–places such as eastern Pennsylvania, lower New York state, and northern Los Angeles County. Aeron Chairs Go to authorized Herman Miller dealers first and think of the advertised price as a starting point. Even if you’re buying just 10 or 20 chairs, you can bargain. “Every contract is individually negotiated,” says Herman Miller spokesman Bruce Buursma. Dealers often have used chairs coming back from leases, which can cost 20 percent less than new ones. Consider lower-cost models too–Herman Miller’s basic Celle chair, for example, offers Aeron-like features for about $499, compared with $699 for a basic Aeron. If you’re not making progress with the brick-and-mortar dealers, go online. Here’s what a recent price comparison turned up (all prices include shipping): New Aeron Chair $699 at officedesigns.com, ultimatebackstore.com, sit4less.com, homeofficesolutions.com (volume pricing available) “Like New” Aeron Chair (floor models or returns) $519 at luxurychair.com, $560 at trendychair.com, $539 at sit4less.com’s clearance section Aeron Look-alikes Sit4Less “E” Chair, $399 at sit4less.com Ergonomic eChair, $319 at luxurychair.com Mesh eChair, $269 at designerseating.com A serious coffeemaker–and serious coffee If you consider a super automatic espresso machine to be a super productivity booster, check out the “outlet” section of wholelattelove.com, which sells manufacturer-refurbished machines at deep discounts–a Jura-Capresso Impresa S9 (list price, $2,400) goes for $1,399, shipping included. As for beans, get the gourmet stuff from old-school coffee roaster D’Amico Foods, which ships nationwide from its store in Brooklyn–at great prices ($6 a pound for the house blend espresso). The best rate on credit cards Start by checking out what your bank offers, then do some comparison shopping. As with personal credit cards, there are numerous no-annual-fee cards out there, so avoid paying such charges unless you truly require the particular services or reward-program benefits of a certain card. At sites like CreditCardGuide.com, CreditCards.com, and MyRatePlan.com (go to the credit card section), you can compare cards and apply online. Fun and Games Nothing succeeds in conjuring that giddy dot-com mood quite like little plastic soccer players. A new Striker foosball table retails for $699. But you almost always can find better deals at online specialty stores, many of which also include free shipping–which is no small matter, since delivery of a foosball table can cost a couple hundred bucks. Here’s a sampling of some of the best deals on office amusements: Foosball Table Striker foosball table $499, shipping included, at justfoosballtables.com      Air Hockey Carrom Premium Hydralumina With Scoring, six-foot model $540, shipping included, at christophersgames.com    Ping-Pong Table Prince Competitor table tennis table $359, shipping included, at dickssportinggoods.com Pool Table Charleston eight-foot table $1,787, crating and air freight included, at pooltables-direct.com    Pinball/Arcade Simpsons game $4,800, with shipping, christophersgames.com 1979 Space Invaders cocktail table arcade game $700 (plus $350 shipping), recently listed on eBay     Turn Your Office Into an Art Gallery Why buy pricey art for your office walls when you can rent? A number of major art museums have rental programs–and many will even help you choose the best pieces for your space. The Artists Gallery at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art charges about $350 to rent a $5,000 painting for three months; a $1,000 painting rents for $170. Like most museum rental programs, SFMOMA’s program focuses on local talent and has thousands of work in all media; photography tends to be the least expensive option. Other museums with rental programs include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Racine Art Museum in Racine, Wisconsin. Local galleries may also rent to businesses.    The Office of Your Dreams Right now, the cheapest downtown Class A rents in major markets can be found in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and Seattle–places where $20 per square foot can land you palatial digs that would cost three times as much in New York City. Wherever you live, make sure you keep up with local business news. When companies close, downsize, or move out of town, they’re often left with time on their existing leases. “Subleasing is where a smaller business can really pick up a bargain,” says Andrew Abramson, a senior vice president with Grubb & Ellis in Washington, D.C. Abramson points out that in addition to lower rent, expensive improvements that were made by the previous tenant–such as phone systems and furniture–are often thrown into the deal as an incentive. Meantime, if you forgo a view and instead take lower-floor or obstructed-view space, you can save anywhere from 10 to 30 percent on rent. (Go to grubb-ellis.com/research to check pricing in markets throughout North America.) Location, Location, Location How much do real estate prices fluctuate nationwide? To find out, we searched for Class A office space in three major markets–Denver, Atlanta, and San Francisco. In each city, we found a plush office of about 6,000 square feet (enough for about 20 people) in a fancy, downtown building with all the amenities-health club, concierge services, covered parking, etc. The annual lease rates, of course, were all over the map. San Francisco $37 per square foot Denver $25 per square foot Atlanta $29 per square foot The Wall Street Journal A staple of office waiting rooms everywhere, the Journal does not offer corporate discounts for bulk orders to new subscribers. Check for special offers on the comparison-shopping sites as well as newspaper specialists subscription-offers.com and discountednewspapers.com. And check the paper’s website, too. At the time of writing, an offer for new subscribers made dealing directly with the publisher the cheapest option out there by far (56 weeks for $99); only one third-party distributor was able to beat the regular yearly subscription price of $215. (Note: This special offer was available online only; operators at the Journal‘s 800 number did not mention or even acknowledge this option.) The Clean-Up Crew Any cleaning service you hire should be bonded and insured–if cleaners mess up your stuff, or themselves, you don’t want to get stuck with the bill. Prices for that will be higher than for under-the-table help, but worth it. Remember, cleaning people often work when the office is empty; you need to be able to trust them. Make sure the company does background checks on workers, and check multiple references. Old-school long-distance service Negotiate directly with carriers or go through resellers, or CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers), which tend to price more aggressively and be more focused on the needs of smaller businesses than the large telecoms. There are many sites that let you solicit bids and compare rates, including PhoneSaver.com and BuyerZone. As you compare services, look for one that will bill the shortest time increments possible for long-distance–one- to six-second intervals, rather than 30-second ones. The smaller increments can translate into savings of 10 percent or so. International calling It’s not a substitute for a traditional phone system, but Skype, which lets you make calls directly from your computer, is a useful supplement if international calls are a big part of your phone bill. The quality usually can’t match a good phone connection, but the prices can’t be beat. Calls to other Skype users (through your computer) are free wherever you’re calling from, and calls to landlines and cell phones in the U.S., much of Europe, China, and Japan cost about two cents per minute. Broadband: Why You Need a Broker Unless you have a strong preference for a particular provider, you’ll generally get better rates through a broker–brokers do the comparison shopping for you, and because they buy in bulk, tend to have greater negotiating leverage. Typically, there is no charge to the consumer in working with a broker; instead, the providers pay the brokers a fee. Look for resellers that have been in business at least a few years, and make sure they show you quotes from several providers. Broadband is an extremely competitive market, so avoid getting locked into a long-term contract. Most companies require a two-year minimum commitment–don’t sign up for a longer term. You can solicit quotes from multiple vendors and resellers at comparison-shopping sites. Office Design Most professional designers charge between $75 and $200 an hour. But hiring one can actually wind up saving you money. Designers often see possibilities that you do not. A designer might suggest ways to use inexpensive materials and built-ins–using melamine boards in place of desks, for example–that can help reduce the amount of office furniture you need to buy. And when you do buy, designers get discounts of as much as 50 percent. The trick is to keep your designer on a short leash by defining the task at hand as narrowly as possible. To find a designer, go to asid.org, the website of the American Society of Interior Designers, and click on the “Find a Designer” link. Before You Buy Thanks to the Web, comparison shopping is a cinch. Sites such as Bizrate.com, PriceGrabber.com, Shopping.com, and NexTag.com may turn up the deal you’re looking for on any number of items. The following sites may be helpful for specialized searches. Broadband service Broadband.com Broadbandbroker.com Buyerzone.com EverythingT1.com Business equipment leasing Buyerzone.com Commercial real estate Equityoffice.com Cushwake.com (click on “Property Listings”) Grubb-ellis.com (click on “Properties”) Computers/software Shopper-zdnet.com Shopper.cnet.com Credit cards Creditcards.com Creditcardguide.com Myrateplan.com Newspaper subscriptions Subscription-offers.com Discountednewspapers.com Phone plans and systems Phonesaver.com Buyerzone.com

About 2697 days ago Business Software

What’s Next: Meet Your New Executives

What advice would you have given to a clerk in 1955 who hoped to make his or her mark by becoming proficient at preparing customer invoices? Or to a corporate middle manager circa 1975? How about to the aspiring travel agent of 1995? The list of jobs that have been pushed toward obsolescence by computers is a long one, though it’s not always easy other than in retrospect to spot whose neck is on the block. Since the list is still growing, the important question thus becomes: Who ought to be polishing up some new skills today? Look no further than your own management team. Computer systems are on the verge of making a quantum leap in brainpower. How much smarter can they get? Prepare to be surprised. Computers have transformed the business world–as well as everyday life–by being able to rip through vast oceans of text and numbers to pull out, manipulate, and transfer data in useful ways. But clever as they are, computers have never been able to truly understand the data they’re working with. Google finds the exact words you tell it to find, no more, no less. A database system can dig up customers in your records, but only according to the numbers and terms you specify. That’s beginning to change. New, powerful software is emerging that can extract something akin to meaning from data–and take action based on that meaning. Indeed, these systems are poised to perform the sort of knowledge-gathering, analysis, and decision-making chores that probably take up much of your day. What’s scary is that in just a few years, such systems will be able to analyze a lot more information than you can, as well as react much more quickly to a greater number of complex situations. What it boils down to is that computers are close to taking over a portion of what CEOs do now. And that will almost certainly change what human entrepreneurs and managers need to bring to the party. One company on the frontlines of these changes is iSpheres. Based in Oakland, Calif., iSpheres specializes in what’s known as “complex event processing” systems, which enable computers to spot an unfolding problem or opportunity–and act on it, automatically. The company’s software grew out of a 10-year Air Force-funded research project at the California Institute of Technology looking at how computers can help fighter pilots make better decisions based on an overwhelming flood of incoming data about their aircraft, enemy aircraft, anti-aircraft batteries, supporting forces, and so on. Business managers, of course, also need to react quickly and proactively to real-time data. “People think real-time decision making is only important in transaction-oriented environments like the stock market,” says iSpheres CEO Deepak Gupta. “But you might want to know when more than four customers haven’t had their calls returned. Or if the humidity inside one of your trucks is rising. If you wait until a problem has escalated, then you may already be dealing with actual losses instead of potential losses.” The iSphere system can respond to brewing problems or nascent opportunities by sending an e-mail or cell phone alert to the right employee–just as you, the CEO, might. It could even dash off a note to a customer, submit a restocking order, or redirect a shipment. The systems currently cost about $100,000, though Gupta expects prices to drop over time. Things will get really interesting when you add a new capability called “text mining” to the mix. Text-mining engines, which can cost as little as a few thousands dollars, take up where Google leaves off, searching articles, webpages, blogs, and e-mail (and eventually, even mobile phone calls or television broadcasts) for ideas and even emotions, rather than specific terms. “Most information today is not in any kind of structured database,” says Brett Shockley, CEO of Spanlink, a text-mining software company in Minneapolis. “Our technology can crawl all that information, parse sentences down to words, and compare the words with a lexicon of the English language.” The technology can help customer service agents and even customers themselves instantly find answers to questions buried in a sea of data. Health insurer Humana Military in Louisville, for example, places Spanlink’s search on its homepage. “HMO members usually have to spend an enormous amount of time refining their search and sorting through results to get to the document they’re looking for,” says John D. Jones, the company’s director of technology innovation. “Our search is restricted to providing five results, and 85% of the time the customer finds the answer there.” (I tested the Humana system with a vague question about reimbursement, and the first hit was right on the money. The same search on my HMO’s website yielded 1,034 hits, and I couldn’t find a clear answer among them.) Jones adds that the Spanlink-based search has cut down on service-agent training requirements and raised the quality and consistency of agent responses, and will eventually lead to a reduction in the number of service agents it employs. Meanwhile, a Watertown, Mass., company called Cymfony is developing an even more sophisticated text-mining application dubbed Orchestra. Cymfony’s software not only finds answers to users’ queries, such as “What do people think of blue soda?” but also points out patterns or trends within the results–for example, that people who live in big cities are more likely to want blue soda, or that people who want blue soda tend to hate pink soda. The software’s ability to highlight connections and contradictions in huge disparate sets of data can be critical to marketing, says the company’s CEO, Andrew Bernstein. “We can do market segmentation to show who the new users of a product are,” he says. Computers will be able to react based on the sum total of all available data–in other words, on the same information that informs a human being’s decisions today. How does this all add up to making your top executives obsolete? Things are really going to take off when complex event-processing systems like iSphere begin to merge with text mining and other monitoring applications. When that happens, computers will be able to react based not merely on what’s in your databases, but on the sum total of all available information–what customers are saying, what competitors are up to, what industry and popular trends are taking hold–in other words, on the same sort of information that informs a human being’s decisions today. Right now, the systems depend on managers to provide the “business logic”–that is, you have to “teach” the systems how to react to different data. But as more companies learn to do that, vendors will be able to sell systems with a certain amount of logic included. The next step will be enabling the systems to teach themselves the logic they need to make key business decisions, in much the same way managers react to a wide range of information. Spanlink, Cymfony, and iSpheres already include rudimentary “self-tuning” capabilities, and far more will be emerging from research labs over the next few years. None of this means that companies won’t need smart managers. It just means that managers will be relieved of much of the monitoring and troubleshooting that make up their days now. With this new technology in place, their emphasis will shift toward more strategic and creative decision-making efforts. Or it will, at least, until computers can start thinking strategically and creatively. Which, by the way, they are already learning to do. But that’s a story for another time. David H. Freedman, a Boston-based writer and Inc. contributing editor, is the author of several books about business and technology. (whatsnext@inc.com)

About 4584 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Web Awards 2000: Community

First place Posted Notes Company: PostNet International Franchise Corp. Web address: www.postnet.net Why it won: Its sophisticated extranet helps franchisees help themselves. Company revenues: $5 million (excluding franchise revenues) Site-launch cost: $10,000 Judge’s view: “If you can do something constructive at a site that enables you to see your results quickly with lots of high customer-service touch, you’ve got a winner.” –Randy Hinrichs “Help! How can we promote our color-copying service?” “What are the rules and regulations for shipping wine?” “Does anyone offer cell/pager service?” “Do you provide health insurance for employees?” Those are the typical sorts of questions that roll into PostNet International Franchise Corp. every day. Once upon a time, the Henderson, Nev., company’s 31-person staff would have handled them one by one. Today hundreds of volunteers — the company’s own franchisees — share the load. PostNet’s Franchisee Web allows PostNet, which franchises postal- and business-service centers, to harness the energy and knowledge of its business licensees in more than 25 countries worldwide. In addition, the company uses the Web to deliver a wide array of services to its customers — those same 700-plus franchisees. The Franchisee Web message boards give users a chance to solve problems, celebrate triumphs, and sometimes just vent. More than 90% of the franchisees regularly visit the message boards, says PostNet executive vice-president Brian Spindel, who cofounded the company in 1992. But a core group of 50 or 60 users provide 80% of the input. Message boards provide PostNet’s management with critical feedback, says Spindel, who checks in four or five times a day but usually doesn’t participate. When franchisees want input from headquarters, they’ll request it. “Then we’ll know it’s time to jump in with both feet and let them know what we really think,” he says. The password-protected message boards were the first feature available when PostNet launched the Franchisee Web, in 1997. The company later added many functions in response to users’ requests. Now the site houses archived newsletters, links to approved vendors, and downloadable marketing materials (including TV commercials and jingles that can be sampled online). In addition, it lets franchisees upload customer databases to a central server. Using that information, PostNet handles direct-mail campaigns on its franchisees’ behalf, a utility that Spindel calls the company’s “killer marketing app.” Such efforts have paid off in increased franchisee communication and involvement, Spindel says. And consequently, revenues have grown, according to PostNet president, CEO, and cofounder Steven Greenbaum. “In the last few years,” he explains, “our annual increase in same-store sales has been in excess of 20%, and we think that’s a direct result of [franchisees'] ability to learn and share.” Most of the creative and design work on PostNet’s extranet has been done in-house. Spindel and Greenbaum chose the features, based on franchisees’ feedback, and PostNet’s two-person graphics department designed the user-friendly look and feel. The company has outsourced most of its programming to a local Internet service provider, which also hosts the site. In the future, however, PostNet plans to handle those tasks on its own. “We’d like a bit more control,” Spindel explains. That’s not all that’s changing. Last year the company invested $10,000 in developing a new site, PostNetOnline.com, that drives profits from E-commerce, such as online orders for business cards, to franchisees. This year PostNet is building individual franchisee Web sites and plans to add an HR section to the Franchisee Web. Meanwhile, the site remains a work in progress. “Any time I’m on a Web page,” says Spindel, “I look at it, and I kind of steal ideas.” –Mary Kwak Second place Track It Down Company: Northwest Research Group Web address: www.nwrg.com Why it won: A password-protected site gives clients access to research 24 hours a day. Company revenues: $2.3 million Site-launch cost: $10,000 Judge’s view: “This is what the Web was intended to do — link information and people.” –Randy Hinrichs Don’t try telling Rebecca Elmore-Yalch “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” The founder of Northwest Research Group, a custom-market-research company with offices in Seattle and Boise, Idaho, has prospered as both a doer and a teacher. In the mid-1980s, when Elmore-Yalch was teaching marketing research at the University of Washington, people started coming to her for help with research projects. “I fixed a few and suggested that maybe they should have me start from the beginning and do it right,” she explains. Fifteen years later, NWRG has conducted telephone surveys, run focus groups, and buttonholed straphangers for customers like the city of Seattle, the Chicago Transit Authority, and Amtrak. As part of its contract with Amtrak, NWRG built a password-protected addition to its Web site in 1997. The Research Site, as the area is known, allows Amtrak staffers to search all of NWRG’s reports online. Some 30 users regularly visit the site, usually looking for the key fact or finding — for example, that 30% of Amtrak travelers are first-time riders — that will turn a run-of-the-mill presentation into a home run. The Web site also provides answers to routine statistical queries, which frees NWRG’s 10-person research staff to address higher-level issues. Now when customers call the researchers, it’s usually for a more interesting discussion about what the data actually mean. And because customers can find facts on their own, NWRG no longer has to charge for looking things up. “It doesn’t look like we’re nickel-and-diming them every time they have a question,” Elmore-Yalch says. But the real payoff for NWRG’s customers, she believes, has little to do with money. “It just makes them look really smart, and that’s what our business is about,” she says. –M.K. Third place Automating an Automaker Company: Badgett Constructors LLC Web address: www.iceas.com Why it won: The site offers a better — and cheaper — way to keep construction projects rolling. Revenues: $26 million Site launch cost: $100,000 Judge’s view: “The best application for any business is to build the business processes online, so everyone can ‘live in the data.” –Randy Hinrichs When it comes to changing course, the turning radius of a corporate giant like Ford is probably closer to that of those unfortunately large Excursions than, say, a diminutive Escort coupe. It took a small company, Badgett Constructors, in Louisville, to grab the wheel and bang a U-ie with its project-management extranet, called the Internet Contracting, Estimating and Accounting System, or ICEAS for short. Badgett, which manages construction at Ford’s Louisville assembly plant, has automated the way projects get done and set a new standard for Ford contractors in the process. The guy in the driver’s seat is Gerald Carrico, Badgett’s project manager for the plant. Carrico thought that giving Ford access to electronic versions of job cost estimates, invoices, minority-worker data, and project-status reports would save his team a lot of photocopying — not to mention saving the company a pile of money. He also wanted to improve communication and accountability. “Sometimes engineers would tell us about a project they wanted us to estimate, but a lot of information would be left vague,” Carrico says. “I wanted them to write up a scope.” Carrico called on O’Bryan Worley, who happens to be the daughter of Badgett owner and manager Kurt Broecker, and who is now a professional Web designer. Worley had the site purring like a kitten in just two months. One early speed bump: getting the engineers to use the site. Some of them didn’t even have Internet access at first, so Ford had to hook them up. Within eight months, some 300 Ford engineers and other contractors at 10 plants were entering data and retrieving reports. When anyone adds new information, the site automatically sends out an E-mail to all the appropriate people, which helps to ensure accountability. Carrico estimates that ICEAS saves his company $75,000 a year in such things as photocopying, materials, and manpower, including 15 to 20 hours a week in clerical time. Ford gave Badgett a best-practices award, and Worley is now operating the site as a separate business that serves Badgett and 11 other construction companies. –Jill Hecht Maxwell Conversation with Randy Hinrichs Judge: Community Think intranets are dull? Listen to Randy Hinrichs for three minutes and you’ll never feel that way again. To the exuberant Hinrichs, author of Intranets: What’s the Bottom Line?, an intranet is no less than the foundation for a company’s success. Hinrichs knows a thing or two about creating powerful virtual spaces. He manages a team of developers who are creating next-generation learning environments at Microsoft. His mission is grand: to democratize learning and make it available anytime, anywhere, for anybody. Here’s Hinrichs on the awards: On his favorite site: “Badgett Constructors has created collaboration and communication and seamless workflow [mechanisms] that allow them to constantly improve work process and relationships, which is even more profound than improving communication.” On getting results from your site: “If I had to pick one thing that makes a Web site successful, it is that there’s always a feedback mechanism from the average user, and that the average user gets a response — not just ‘I heard you,’ but ‘Check this out.’ And that’s what Badgett is doing. You can bid online, order online, interact online, and everyone can see the results of your work.” On building a business: “You’re not going to be a good E-commerce site unless you’re good inside. If you want to go out and be a company that says ‘Our products rock,’ [you have to say] ‘Come inside and see the way our business rocks.” –Elaine Appleton Grant Annual Web Awards 2000 General Excellence Marketing Customer Service ROI Innovation Community Judges Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.