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Managing the Workload

Well, things are going along pretty well, but I recently took a look at all of the outstanding work I wanted done.  Several key pieces, I had slotted to complete before year end, so I could get them certified by SAP.  Well, it seems the calender has got away from me, and I’m creeping into the end of October already.  Now this isn’t the end of the world, and there is plenty of time, but for the first time ever, I have help doing this development work.  This is a GREAT thing, unfortunately, it means that several objects that I want to add pieces to are already under construction with one of my contractors.  My good friend Jer warned me about this, but I thought I’d have more time before it actually impacted me.

So, why am I writing about this today?  first and foremost, it is essential to have systems in place to help you manage what is going on, and who is working on it.  Now, I’m still small, so this can all be managed with a simple spreadsheet.  And Thankfully, this has helped to stop me from jumping right into my next idea, since if I did, I’d end up getting either my work, or my contractor’s work overwritten when it got combined.  So, what do I currently track:

  • Specification number & description – for those of you who are non-techy, this is just the “thing you want done”
  • what’s the status of spec – a great reminder for me if I haven’t written the spec yet.
  • Who is the developer
  • what status is the change in
  • Main object touched
  • Priority of the list

So today’s advice, is to make sure you track (and look at that tracking sheet) before you jump into something.  Don’t fall into the trap that I tend to fall into.  “I’m too small to need to worry about that yet”.  Once you have more than I person doing the same job, you need something to properly manage the workload.  You might just save yourself a big headache.  Now, I still have the challenge of getting everything done, but that’s for another time.

thanks for reading,

Writing an E-book – Thinking ahead

Well, as many of you know, I’ve really been focusing a lot of time on writing an this e-book for SAP Service Management.  I was extremely excited, because I thought I was nearly done, ready to start publishing and be able to refer to myself as the “the guy who wrote the book on SAP SM”.  Well, it seems I didn’t do my homework very well.  Now, I did finish all the content for my book, and I even gave it a first round of editing, proofreading, and found a couple sections that I missed.  But, where I dropped the ball was some of the basic things needed to publish a book.

1. A Title ( you may have seen my previous post asking for feedback).

2. A cover – as I found out as soon as I started looking to publishing on Amazon, iBooks, etc. is that you need a cover.  It sounds to simple…  but since I’m the furthest thing from artistically gifted, means I need help with this.  Unfortunately, my favorite graphic artist is booked solid.  So now I have no choice but to delay my publishing.

Now, this isn’t the end of the world, but after spending time off and on over the past year…  I was ready to release this baby.  And now I find out I’m on hold, because I didn’t do my due diligence on what was required in order to publish an e-book.

Live and learn, and as always, I hope you learn from my mistakes and get those pieces started early.

Thanks for reading,

The New E-Book, Step 2

I’m not gonna lie, I’m feeling pretty good.  Over the weekend, I finally wrapped up all the content I plan to use in my E-book.  That being said, I now have to move my effort over to the next phase, getting it published.  While I have no aspirations to go with a formal publisher, I do plan on getting it into the Amazon store and iBooks platforms.  While I know that I’ll lose a big chunk of any revenue by publishing there, this book is more about exposure and being able to say “I wrote the book on SAP Service Management”, and be able to prove it 🙂

Now the first thing I found that I need to focus on is getting a cover made for my book.  I did some homework and found that you have to have a colorful cover (ie no gray scale).  So I’m off on the next step of putting together my cover for the book.  As it turns out, there are some rules about this including size, color and content.  Nothing that should impact me too much, but still, another hurdle.  So off to figure out my cover.

Thanks for reading,

Coming up with a title. Not as Easy as it looks

Well, I was starting to work on designing a cover, when it hit me, it’s hard to have a cover until you know your title.  I’ve had an original working title for a while, but it’s pretty boring.  However, since this is a How-To book, maybe boring is ok…  but i doubt it.  So today, I’m asking for your help.  I’d love to hear your ideas on a good title for this book.  Keep in mind, my plan is publish on my website, as well as in amazon, iBooks, etc…  so it needs to be something that people will find.

My book is a how to guide on configuring SAP Service Management.  I walk through many of the pieces of configuration, explain what you need to do to get Service Management up and running quickly.  IN addition, I cover all the advanced pieces, so when you have things configured, you can start tweaking.  I even cover the questions you should ask during blueprinting, and some advanced topics.  So, here are some of the “working titles” I’ve come up.  Let me know if you think one of these is a winner, or you might have a great spin on something already in there.  Here’s my thoughts in no particular order.

  1. How to Configure SAP Service Management the quick and easy way.
  2. Configuring SAP Service Management, A How-To Guide
  3. SAP Service Management: Your guide to a quick implementation
  4. Setting up SAP Service Management
  5. The Consultant’s Guide to SAP Service Management
  6. SAP Service Management from A to Z
  7. Everything you ever wanted to know about SAP Service Management, but didn’t know who to ask.
  8. Getting Started in SAP Service Management

Looking forward to your feedback,

Thanks for reading,

Making First Impressions

Now, it’s funny, because this past weekend I had a perfect example of what not to do.  I was getting some new carpet for my Mom’s basement, and I needed someone to come in and do an install.  So, we had a guy recommended to us, so we called him up.  Very friendly, very personable, not very punctual.  So here’s a guy coming in for the first time, and he shows up 4 hours late.  Ok, that’s already less than ideal.  Then, he’s looking around, asking questions, and next up he starts up trash talking a company I had do some work previously at our place.

Now, there is just so much wrong with this first impression, it’s amazing.  First off, do what you say.  If say you’re going to show up between 8:30 and 9:00 AM, show up at 8:31.  Don’t call back at 9:30, say you’ll be there in an hour, and then show up 2.5 hours later.  It is just so obvious, but apparently, not everyone got the memo.  For most of you out there, I’m sure you don’t need to hear this…  but it’s still a good reminder.

Next up, talking about the competition.  Now, first off, never trash talk another business.  Follow that golden rule… “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”.  It really is that simple.  You don’t have to like your competition, but you should respect them.  After all, they are in business and if you don’t do well enough, they will start to take your business.  If you keep doing your best, then you have nothing to worry about.  But let me tell you, listening to someone badmouth a company I did business with, spent a lot of money, and was happy with their work, really left me a bit defensive.

Now, the bad thing for me is that my time was limited, so I still chose to go with this person.  I’m hoping his work is good, and he can reprieve himself from my initial bad impression of him.  Anyway, learn from this experience…  do what you say you will do, and don’t badmouth anyone.

Thanks for reading,

Marketing – How to do a Presentation

Well, I finally got back to reading my marketing book, and I learned a couple more tidbits I wanted to share.  Today I wanted to talk about doing presentations.  This could be big presentation at a conference, a small demo, or maybe even a quick one on conversation.  Like so much of what I’ve learned, it all comes back to making the presentation about your customer.  There a few simple questions you MUST keep in mind.

  1. Who is this person?
  2. What do they want?
  3. What are they searching for?
  4. What is the single most valuable thing I could possibly offer them?

Notice that pattern with every one of these questions, they are revolving around the customer.  None of them are about how I can convince my Widget is awesome, none of them revolve about being funny or dynamic.  While these can be parts of a presentation, you need to gear this around your customer.

Who is this person?  – well you have to look beyond customer, prospect, or dollar signs.  You need to see who this person really is.  What do they do in their free time?  why are they sitting there talking to you?

What do they want?  don’t think products here.  You need to go beyond the typical sales approach.  What is about the product or service that this person believes can make their life better?  is it more time at home with their family?  is it more money so they can retire soon?  what do they REALLY want?

What are they searching for?  this is similar to what they want, but it’s a little more specific to why they are listening to you.  do they need more efficiency at work?  more time at home, and less time in the office?  do they need to avoid being on the road?  or is their business in trouble and they need everything they can get to give them an edge?

What is the single most valuable thing I could offer then?  – is it efficiency?  is it time?  is it ideas?  now again, stop thinking about what your product or service offers.  Step back from that when you determine your approach in the presentation.  Think of what you can offer them…  maybe it’s a recommendation for your competitor because they do the one thing this person needs better than you.  Maybe it’s a simple idea or white paper you just read that could give them the technology they’ve been looking for.  Right now it’s all about value you can provide…  now what you can sell them.

This formula is very simple.  Build trust with this person.  Give them your best, don’t worry about selling your widget here.  Maybe your widget will solve all their issues…  but likely, they need more.  Offer them any information you have, tidbits, or any products out there that can solve their real issues.

Thanks for reading,

What to do when you realize you did things the hard way…

Well, I just got struck alongside the head with a frying pan again.  I was in the process of rebuilding my customer system, and moving in my transports.  Well, the short story is that it’s been a lot harder than it needed to be.  I broke things up into so many pieces so that it would be easier to package them when it came to sell them, but still keep them modular, so I can sell individual pieces rather than the whole package…

Well, there were so many things wrong with that whole approach, now that I finally see it.  First, I figured out I don’t need a “namespace” for ever little product I make.  I probably needed at most, 2 namespaces.  And looking back…  could’ve just done it with one.  For those SAP geeks out there, I was using the namespace like a package…  when in reality, I should’ve just been using packages :)…

Now, for the dilemma…  how much time and effort am I willing to put forth to clean this up.  Since sales have been “meager”, it means that I do still have the clean slate option to fix it before my next sale.  But even though it is a copy and paste exercise, it could be quite an extensive exercise.  So either myself, or I have to hire someone to copy/delete, copy/delete/copy delete…  for hours on end.  Now the question comes in…  where is the value add of this activity?

Well, there are some minor value adds… first off, we could shorter the names of our transactions.  Simplify the structure of everything I’m doing.  Back it a whole lot easier to share code among the different applications…  but most of it is all on the back end.  The cost of doing this is that me or someone else isn’t working on the new offerings.  looks like I need to give this some thought…

as always, I welcome your comments,

thanks for reading,

Picking a Direction – When to follow the buzzwords.

When I got together with a friend of mine, we started chatting about a lot of the latest and greatest technologies that SAP has been hyping.  Well, this all got me to thinking about when do you follow the latest and greatest  technology when you’re running a business?  Now the dilemma comes from trying to predict exactly which technology is worth following.  When technology changes so quickly, how can you possibly predict what bandwagon to jump on?

Now the challenge that I face is that I’m a small business, so obviously I don’t have the resources to follow every new path.  But, if I don’t chase some of the new buzzwords, I’ll end up so far behind the times that it’ll quickly leave my development in the dust.  So, what’s the solutions???

Well, I’m going to try a plan, and keep in mind, I’ve been perpetually behind the technology.  However, with my target market, I don’t believe it’s killed me.  At the same time, perhaps having more current buzzwords might make me more desirable as a product.  So, it seems that the only option is for me to at least investigate some of these new technologies.  In my world, it’s the cloud, Fiori and HANA.  For you, only you can tell.  But it seems that I have no choice but to build yet another system that I can install these new technologies.  Even if I just make a simple application for the one of these, it gives me the opening that I’ll need to determine if it’s a business maker, or just another buzzword.  Being in the technology business isn’t easy.  I’m learning that it truly is a bit of a gambler’s game.  Knowing when to jump into the market…  or perhaps being a leader by getting in early is tough.  As I attempt to learn about these new technologies, I’m sure I’ll have new things to blog about, so at a minimum, I’l have that going for me 🙂

I’d love to hear your opinion’s on keeping current with technology.  How do you handle it?

Thanks for reading,

SAP HANA – Hype or Here to Stay?

Well, I recently got together with a friend of mine, and one of the topics turned to SAP HANA.  Well, up to now, my perception of HANA was just a lot of hype.  It seemed like it was just the latest buzzword that SAP invented, and if you keep talking about something enough, people will buy it.  While this approach hasn’t yet worked for me, maybe I need to try it 🙂

Up to now I only knew that HANA was built around RAM vs. HDD space.  So for everything that I’ve heard, you buy a bunch of new hardware, then everything ran faster.  Well, after talking to my friend, I feel like I was right and wrong, at the same time 🙂  So, from what learned, HANA is basically going to become a replacement for the database that SAP runs on.  So instead of using Oracle, soon you’ll be using HANA.  The concept with this is that the table structures, views, etc. have been changed to optimize the structures within the database.  Since the hardware is enhanced to handle to operate with more memory, the need to have simplified structures or even views is gone, so instead the DB can handle bigger tables.

While this may be true, it still seems to me that this is technology that is geared toward new customers or installations.  It seems like this is unlikely to be embraced by existing installations, at least until they are mandated to.  Of course, I’d love to hear your opinions on this.

Just in case you’re interested in another funny opinion, check out this blog:
http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog/2014/09/10/y-u-no-love-hana

thanks for reading,

Staying Focused. The challenge of writing.

Well, I mentioned a while ago that I was working on writing an E-Book.  It certainly won’t be an exciting read, but I’m hoping it will be very educational.  I’m working on writing a manual on how to configure SAP Service Management.  I originally thought this would be an easy endeavor.  I mean, I know this stuff inside and out, right?  Well, I’m discovering that writing a book is more than just knowing the story you want to tell.  You need to stay focused, and like any good project, you need to control “scope creep”.

I’ve been doing my best to keep adding new sections to fully describe the configuration, lots of screen shots, etc.  But then I get sidetracked doing some Linked-In marketing, or working with my contractors, writing new specifications, etc…  and before long, I’ve gone a week without adding any new content.  Then to compound things, I keep thinking of things to add to make the book better.

What’s the lesson?  like everything else, you have to prioritize.  For me personally, I need to break the task down into smaller pieces, and schedule those.  I’ve had one task of write the e-book.  It’s a better approach for me to write one section at a time, and thus set up smaller daily tasks of writing a section every day.  Next up is to draw a line in the sand.  If I don’t stop with the new ideas, it just becomes one more method of procrastination.

Now realization alone isn’t enough.  For me, I need to act on this new knowledge.  So I literally just went to Remember the Milk, and changed the task to do a daily section of the E-book.  A manageable task, rather than a monumental one 🙂

Thanks for reading,