Ramblings

No one likes to admit that they are a fan of Elton John or Microsoft

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:30:00 GMT

This week, I had a meeting with one of our customers. They had 14 sites installed, and we were discussing the options for consolidating their other divisions to run on the same systems - removing the need to manage 3 other ERP platforms.

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Show Up, Leave No Man Behind and other unwritten rules within the sales organization

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:30:00 GMT

There are a number of unwritten rules between sales executives, and solution/presales consultants that keep the sales process well oiled. Some of them are good ideas, and some of them should be written in stone.

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A Beginners Guide to Cutting your Software Vendors Margins to the Bone...

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:40:00 GMT

Yesterday I read a post by Eric Kimberling (@erickimberling) titled "In Search of Business Value & ROI: Achieving IT Benefits Realization" (http://tinyurl.com/mmx5k4) and to be honest, it made me a little sad.

The title of the post was a little misleading. I think it should have really been titled "A Beginners Guide to Cutting your Software Vendors Margins to the Bone, Bleeding them Dry, and Hanging Them Up on the Town Wall as an Example of What Will Happen to the Next Vendor that Dares Walk Into the Company" (sorry - my capitalization may be a little off).

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TestPiloting - Pilots and Demo's in the Cloud

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:01:00 GMT

I just had some thoughts on ERP demonstrations and pilots - why they are so hard to do, and also a possible solution - Piloting in the Cloud, and becoming your very own Test Pilot.

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More Thoughts On Storyboards

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:14:00 GMT

In my last post "Demo Scripts vs Storyboards" I talked about creating storyboards for demonstrations. After thinking about the format of the storyboards, I thought that a better way to plan out the scenes of the demonstration would be to put each of the storyboard elements on an index card

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Demo Scripts vs. Storyboards

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:53:00 GMT

I did a Webcast yesterday, and something that I always do before a presentation is outline what I am planning to show. This helps me keep on track and also is where I note down

order of the topics
features that I want to show
data that I should use to best highlight features
possible areas to avoid because I haven't set up data etc.

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How to show software features - let me count the ways

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:13:00 GMT

Let me let you in on a secret... If you put ten software demonstrators in the same room and ask them to show the same feature or method to perform a task, then chances are you will get ten different demonstrations. And this is with the same product. Most software is flexible enough to provide a number of different ways to achieve the same result.

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Could an ERP Software Co-Op Work

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:35:00 GMT

Normally when you think of a co-op, you think of a farmers or some other community co-op. People create co-ops so that they join together with a common business to produce or supply a services, operated by its members with the profits and losses shared by the menbers as well. Could an ERP software co-operative work and be profitable?

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On Scripted Demonstrations

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:13:00 GMT

This morning I was reading a blog from Dave Litzenberg titled "The Scripted Software Demonstration: Making an Enterprise Software Decision on More than Gut Feel" - http://tinyurl.com/qoegsx - and I had to make a couple of comments on scripts, and why they are not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Scripted demonstrations are great for creating structure - but it has a couple of downsides.

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Is a Demo a Science or an Artform?

Thu, 28 May 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Or in other words, is a demonstration something that needs to be structured and follow specific rules or do you just need to be a natural performer and you will be able to get away with murder during the presentation?

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