Category / Strategies

What is an information system? Ask 20 people and you will probably get 25 answers. Some will talk about hardware. Some will say software. Others will talk about content. We tend towards "all of the above." Books were (and still are) an "information system." In today's thinking however, they would be digital books. In the…

A proposal is similar in some ways to an RFP response. Both require the offeror to establish capability, provide solutions, and manage delivery schedules. Unlike a proposal, an RFP comes with certain formalities, especially when the requestor is a government agency. There is an art to crafting a winning response. Even so, sometimes winning has…

What do you need? Where can you get it? How long will it take you to get it? How might it arrive? Getting whatever it was you wanted isn’t as simple as going to the local market. The producer or supplier (not always the same) may not have what you wanted available. If you are…

Market Analysis Who’s buying? Who’s the competition? What are the risks? How much can we sell? These are the fundamental questions. The answers are found in the details. Getting the details is the challenge. Straw Hat Trading Company, LLC – Wine and Specialty Foods Market research included competitive pricing, distribution, costs, sales channels, producers, and…

Communication is not only about language; it's about understanding. Too often, the main complaint is "they don't understand my language." In fact, communication has more to do with culture and expectations than language. Another interpreter isn't going to help solve the quality problems at your factory in Shenzhen or resolve the shipping delays. The issues…

First quality and excellent value at a fair price My primary website, wudang.com, was one of the first sites online in English and Chinese. Our founding strategy was to make our site available globally, on whatever device might be available. In 1996, pages were weighted and images were optimized to accommodate 28k dial-up speeds. Today,…

Want to know what the business is really doing? Check the numbers. It’s fine to have staff meetings, prepare reports, and customer surveys. But that won’t always tell you what you need to know. How many widgets did the Asia team sell last month? $200,000? Great. That looks great on a sales report. But that’s…

Upgrades, consolidations, and enhancements usually start with the current system or systems. A company may have several platforms, more than a few servers, and even some ghosts and zombies — all without a concise view of what is being used and what’s not. Business users ask for new features and projects are scheduled. It may…

Content management and document management closely related. Documents contain content,… well, of course they do. Content management systems allow documents to be attached or stored. Yes? So why bother with any distinctions? Just load the container. Today, most of the focus on content management is on web-based content and the systems that provide tools to…

How to design an intuitive, easy to use system? Start with the architecture, add a clean, well-crafted interface, and just the right touch of graphic design. An elegant design appears simple. It leads the person to do whatever was intended and provides options to do more. How to achieve that clear, simple elegance is not so…