JomSocial and Joomla CMS help to initiate conversations

JomSocial is a perfect tool for meeting the demands of the marketplace and our overall shift in cultural interaction notably called “socialeconomics”. I have been reading a great new book by this title and in it there are many fascinating examples of how our society, now plagued with multi-tasking and the pace of a race car on the finishing lap, is using social media to “knock of several birds with a single stone” sort of speak. I recently started a new social community as a tool to centralize information about some of my views and those that I have collected about Public Education. The idea was to build conversations around topics that can help folks better understand not only what is at stake but perhaps where they can contribute their ideas and creativity in a way that can have impact on the end game. This www.givetoed.org community allows folks to interact with most of the popular social networking and community collaboration tools in a way that remains personal yet captures the spirit of teamwork.

Platform for communication, collaboration and education

The GiveToEd.org platform leveraged all of the key features found in the JomSocial Community suite for Joomla CMS and has the intention of centralizing conversational information that can increase awareness about targeted topical categories. The ability for anyone to contribute blog articles, calendar events and comments around these topics seems like a perfect application of these tools.

Since the JomSocial components are useful for expanding the user profile fields in Joomla CMS it is a huge compliment for a variety of web applications that want extended user profiles and registration form processing. I was an avid user and big fan of another such tool for several years now called Community Builder components. These were the first for the Joomla platform and are still a great choice for Social Networking sites and extending user profiles. However the overall architecture of the JomSocial suite of community tools is a little more user intuitive for a facebook style niche social community.

We will see more and more niche social communities moving forward.

I think we will see more of these types of niche communities over time since organizations like Linked in are the business networking “Chambers of Commerce” of the future. Businesses are competing globally now and our personal social circles are also much more diversified and geographically dispersed. As an example I joined facebook a while back but did not find many folks on there just a few “early adopters”, social media geeks like me. Since leavening the Mpls MN music scene in 2000 after a rewarding 15 year career in the music/entertainment business, I have been longing to connect with many of my old friends and colleagues. A few weeks back I found a few folks that knew a few folks that new a few folks and within a week I was instantly connected with nearly 300 wonderful people that I really missed and appreciate. They and I have been able to passively and personally interact in conversations in the weeks since. It is really neat to see what many of the folks, some I have not seen for 10 years, have been up to. Though I am half way across the country in a different world as a “family man a computer geek” I am able to connect to a part of me that I could have by no other means.

Relationship management tools will be the norm of tomorrow.

The Givetoed.org community we built is hoping to bring our local communities together around a central purpose of improving our public education. Social community and relationship management tools like this play an important role and create a bridge for people to communicate at a level they could not before. For example you can look at this two ways; One, you can get those spontaneous thoughts out with quick short messages that syndicate in real time for instant response to a broad audience quickly or you are able take your time with well articulated content you wish to share that could have a lasting effect on others opinions. These social web tools can help fill the gap of communication and collaboration between where we were not too long ago and where we are now and into the future.

Public Education is just one community that needs social media conversations

If the next generation of schools are going to be effective and affordable we will have to adapt to a world to a world we have yet to understand.  Just think, when a 1^st grader this year graduates from college it will be 2026 give or take a year. Look back on what happened in the past 16 years and tell me if you could have predicted where you would be today back then.

I am thankful that the technologies like JomSocial for Joomla CMS much like Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms have evolved to connect people and help us manage these many relationships

My hope is that many sites like our www.Givetoed.org social community web portal will bring people together to Collaborate, Communicate and Educate on important areas within our society. We learn more efficiently through interpersonal communication than by any other means. I hope you drop by and have a look around and even better yet leave your comments.

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Let’s talk about Value Building

In our quest to refine our own organization and to enhance our value add to customers we are actually leveraging the same principles that we have integrated into our consulting practice. The saying “reap what you sew” holds true and is something that you can duplicate in your organization to pass greater value on to your customers.

We spent a lot of time in our think tanks over the past year going around and around on developing a methodology that would allow us to deliver on our promise of what every consumer wants and expects; “Better Service, Faster Innovations and Greater Value”. In my research I discovered some fascinating resources I wanted to share. It is the whole business modeling concept of “Value Networks”.  I finally have a catch phrase for our business model. I have been struggling with how to best communicate this to folks and this was like the final piece to the light bulb for me.

Valuable Resources for Building Value  Networks

If you are a in a leadership role in any organization contemplating how you can survive the economic and globalization supply chain challenges or if you are searching for tools to help you achieve this new virtual workforce and social collaboration capabilities I think you will want to take a look at these links and associated resources.

 

1. For IT companies this is a brief from a Strategic Consulting Firm that I found very useful and if you can afford the program it looks very promising.

http://www.valueforward.com/manifesto/thanks.html

2. For companies struggling with how to rethink their organizations and infrastructures to accommodate the changing marketplace this whole Value Network concept explored in resources at this link will be a very useful though meandering.

http://www.openvaluenetworks.com/

Note: be sure to download some of the white papers and research. This is great stuff!!!

3. If you would like to explore technologies that support the infrastructure behind this kind of Value Network please visit www.crbm.net or www.learningcrm.com. These are repositories of information on the CRBM Platform that integrates info@hand CRM with Joomla CMS and QuickBooks Accounting Software for a comprehensive technology platform to build any next generation virtual business that connects to your own Value Network.

It is an exciting time in the IT and web space marketplace and for me this hit the nail on the head for us pushing out a high level understanding of who we are and what we do.

Who we are:

“We are a value network for delivering business results”

What we do:

“We deliver service recourses and consulting with a platform of integrated technologies designed to help small businesses achieve their strategic objectives.”

How you benefit:

“You can Future Proof your business with a solution that offers consolidated virtual productivity tools, better business intelligence, increased security, strategic relationship management and effective transaction management from a central dashboard.”

Why it is important:

“Increased competition from a global economy in transition requires a new scalable business model that incorporates virtual and social collaboration, consolidates resources and leverages  green technologies so you can increase your sales effectiveness.”

Why we are your best choice:

“Our unique Value Building Approach and associated technologies focuses on your intended business results, maximizing the return on your technology investment and giving you peace of mind about your virtual business tools”

I hope you find this useful and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

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I was poking around on a discussion in one of my linked in groups and this interesting question came up;

"Does CRM 2.0 have the same meaning or definition of social CRM?

What are the major challenges facing social implementation? and what factors may influence the customers to use social CRM?"

My first response was... I think this will depend on the size and dynamic of the organization. The needs and complications involved for a smaller business will be much different than a larger

enterprise.

After thinking more about this, in a sense Social CRM is replacing CRM 2.0 since you will need to engage in social media as part of your customer engagement. I just attended a "Social CRM gathering in Boston called "The Rock Stars of Social CRM " it had folks like Paul Greenberg (Author of CRM at the speed of light) on the panel. At the end they were asked is social CRM is the right term and the just of the point was it does not matter what you call it but essentially you are going to need to engage and communicate with your customer the way they want to be communicated to and with the tools they are comfortable with since they are now in charge of the transaction engagement. The vendors job is really about getting down to the basics of good old fashion customer service.

Do we need a new acronym?

The term I am tossing out to the community for discussion is "Customer Conversation Management". If we need a new acronym, I think this fits more appropriately since all good relationships require listening as well as communication and the relationship and responsiveness is key to achieve the loyalty and trust required to ask for your customers business.

Principles of CRM remain the same

I think the basic principles in good relationship and conversational communication are important skills that have to transcend an organization. If any conversation is one way and not interactive someone usually gets frustrated and walks away. It will be even more important to master this skill moving forward since you not only need to grow quality relationships that are based on trust but you will have to build more of them. Since all of your customers will be able to communicate with each other you also can not afford to make mistakes or let negative conversations go un answered.

It will be intersting to see the next generation of technologies designed to help us mange these Social-Business relationships. However, if you are not a good messenger and can not connect at some reasonable level as a good  listener in a two way conversation these tools will do little for you.

I am interested in your comments. Is there a new acronym warranted for the new wave of "Social CRM" or do you think this all just falls under CRM?

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Social CRM blossoms from good old human nature and a wave of new tools - now is the time to plug in

The transition from Traditional CRM to Social CRM is a bit of a paradigm shift while still being rooted in the basics of human nature. This new wave still includes all of the elements of traditional relationships where trust and loyalty are king. Business has always been social to a certain degree this is just a revolution in the way people are communicating through a new tool set. There is also a significant shift in "Who is in charge". It began with the consumer taking charge through the evolution of the web and Globalization. This all required you to compete globally vs locally. The trend is that collaboration will become more horizontal vs vertical. The military/enterprise [esk] (vertical) top down authoritative management model will be transformed over time to a lot more (horizontal) network based collaboration and contribution oriented. CRM magazine's latest issue is all about Social CRM and this phenomenon. Well worth the read and they have a beautiful graphic that illustrates their projected map of the future.

Where do Small Businesses fit in?

So the big question here is where is all of this leading for the small business owner or entrepreneur launching a start-up? How can this evolution create opportunity for those new innovators and how can they compete with the big boys in the marketplace?

I believe the accessibility of this new technology can really level the playing field if implemented with a smart plan that targets the right priorities. The trick is that it is all about listening effectively and being able to respond. There are a ton of great case studies on this in the book "Groundswell " and throughout the blogosphere.

Quite the BUZZ and fight for market share

The buzz is defiantly out there for Social CRM and Social technologies in general. The race is on for who is going to get the best market share of the social wave(s). I say waves since there are so many viable niches. Take the contrast between a linked in and myspace as a fair example. I am very surprised that I have grown such a significant following on my twitter page in a very short time period (@cnpsupport) and last week Google pushed out the "Google WAVE":

Google WAVE: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

Twave: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/twave/

I also posted last week about 1000 twitter apps that I found online. I am building a pretty good list for facebook right now as well. These are all indicators of serious momentum.

With all of these powerful tools flooding the market you really have to be on your toes and it is easy to get overloaded with information. This all comes back to developing a good listening strategy and implementation plan for the right technologies. The social technology boom is a natural fit with traditional customer relationship so it is just figuring out what is going to be the best approach for you. It is going to take a lot of careful thought and some "testing of the water" to get the right plan. Remain flexible to change and then you have to have the discipline to execute it consistently over time.

Platform for future proofing your business

Since our conception our model has been to provide support for a variety of open source tools that provide solutions to particular pains and challenges faced by the average small and midsized business. They all face hurdles trying to increase sales , lower costs or to become more competitive in a global marketplace. The CRBM Platform offers fully integrated capabilities once only available to large companies with deep pockets. Most often small businesses grow from one or a couple people's great ideas or innovations and this means that these entrepreneurs often become overwhelmed with wearing many hats and juggling a lot of information and tasks all at the same time.

Having a good web based infrastructure and consolidated tool set to help them create, scale and manage a role and process based organization while increasing their marketing and communications efficiencies and reach is of vital importance. For these systems to be effective they have to be an integrated part of how companies do business, come from the leadership (top down) so starting early is always better, before other habits are formed. It is a well know fact that properly implementing technology can have a significant impact on success at any stage in your company's growth. It can have a equally devastating consequence if implemented poorly or the wrong decisions are made along the way.

The right tool for the right job

The right customer relationship business management system (CRBM) will help future proof your business.  However, it can be a daunting task sorting out which tools to implement and when. It is just a lot to get your head wrapped around in concert with all of the new social technologies, while you are trying to do all of the other aspects of developing your product or service and responding to the needs of your customers. For any business with a face on the web it is not a matter of "if" you need a CRM, because you do, but rather how effectively you can use the right tools for your business model.

Building Value, reducing costs and better execution

For the reasons stated above we have put significant effort into our new Value Building Methodology , designed to help small businesses bridge that gap between their people, the right technology and an effective strategic plan. We are finding that with this proven process for defining requirements and implementing carefully thought out strategies in the project life cycle, that we can guarantee success like never before.

With the current economic conditions in a global economy, no one can afford to miss their targets or duplicate efforts.  Companies need to attract more customers with less resources, they need better business intelligence to respond faster to their customers, they need to consolidate their technologies, improve efficiency with their team collaboration and they have to reduce overhead. To do this they need to get the best value out of their vendors and the technology choices they make. They also need to align and train the people integrating with these systems to be as effective as possible.

Plan for success

It is very clear that the only way to do this without a lot of hit and miss is to use a Value Building process to:

1.       Identify the right questions to be asking

2.       Identify the right tools to connect the right dots

3.       Identify the right processes and map them to the technologies

4.       Build a targeted strategy that matches your business model

5.       Creating a realistic action plan and timeline

6.       Track the results and align/update program with feedback

This may sound like some of the same old project management methodology stuff but we have some twists that really take this up a few notches. Since most of the Social technologies are new and continue to change, this program is structured but quite fluid to adapt to the chances not only in technology but within your organization. We also incorporate a baseline technical support contract that includes a bunch of bundled services and discounted rates for the CRBM Platform . This brings deployment costs down for customers while allowing us to respond more effectively to help make each program more successful. Customers benefit from the growing customer community, falser innovations and collective knowledgebase.

In conclusion:

The WAVE of Social CRM is something that small businesses need to jump on and ride effectively if they are going to get a place at the table.

Social Technologies and application of CRM tools are evolving and you need to remain flexible in your approach yet be consistent over time and keep listening to your customers (or you will lose them).

If you do not develop the right strategic approach and realistic execution plan you could end up spending way more money and time than you should or you could just miss the bus all together. Who can afford to do this in the current state of the economy?  This is a series of make and break decisions so make sure you pick the right tools, develop a solid plan and get good advice and support from the right vendors along the way .

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Let me take a minute to tell you about and welcome Matt Zimmerman and the Value Builder Program to CNP Integrations . Here is a guy with years of experience delivering CRM solutions to large enterprises and small businesses alike. He worked in the world of IBM solutions and built sales organizations of 100+. When we started talking about having him work with our relatively small company that had a great bunch of technologies and significant expertise with them, we quickly realized his Value Builder Program was a missing link for bringing our great technology platform to companies and driving real success. It is one thing to sell software and associated services but what we wanted to achieve began with our mantra "Your Success is our Success". What we found is that when small businesses looked at our solutions they went WOW look at all of these features and hey I can actually afford this. However, without taking the step of careful planning and identifying where these solutions add the greatest value to your organization, this can cause significant frustration and often times failure once deployed.

Cost of Entry and Open Source

Unlike the big company enterprise solutions with huge R&D departments and proprietary code that drive expensive cost of entry and required maintenance contracts, we work with solutions that are based on open source code. In some ways this is a double edged sword and when you do not plan carefuly this too can slice into your pocket book painfully if you are not cautious in your implementation strategy. Open source projects offer two distinct advantages; one is you have the freedom to customize the framework if needed since the code is open source and two, the cost of entry if often free or very low. Along with this though you have to make sure your expectations are realistic and while you get in with a lower cost of entry you must also plan to reserve enough resources to get the greatest value out of this approach. The greatest value from open source is achieved when you can invest significantly in building and aligning your strategy with extended training and support.

The gap and the need

When we started our company CNP Integrations we saw a big gap and need for support services to companies looking to adopt open source solutions. What we found is that most folks looked at adopting open source technologies similar to a get rich scheme. Where they can skip the strategic planning and thorough needs assessment processing because they could get the software for free and then they would magically just transform what they do to match the software. "Ding Ding" this is where we run into another huge service need and where the Value Builder Program fits in. In the software development world you plan out a spec and set clear milestones for projects because there are so many possibilities for scope creep. If you do not keep this in check you can create a real mess and spend a lot of money on stuff that does not realize any return on your investment. The same is true if the software is already built and you want to integrate your team with it. You cannot just throw this software at them and say "have at it" since this can create just as big of a mess. Careful thought should be put into what features and business processes are going to give your teams the greatest possible return on their time investment and your dollars. You also need to develop a clear roadmap that rolls out some of these features over time, carefully integrates your existing business processes and has the buy in from everyone planning to use them.

Support contracts

Before we became a reseller of these technologies we began using them and I signed up for a service contract since it was just me in my basement on this adventure of launching a startup. Well this was great for the first month but then it turned out that the vendor just wanted to collect my money for not really doing much. I vowed to never sign up for a contract like this or never put my customers through such an ordeal. However, I think there is a happy medium where a service contract can build value and customer loyalty if it has a blend of the right technical support and alignment consulting strategy built into it.

The best of both worlds

With all of this in mind we have built two programs to help meet the need in the marketplace and help our customers get what they need to achieve results and ultimately "successful cost effective implementations of technology designed to empower their workforce and reduce overhead".

The Value Builder Program leverages Matt Zimmerman's strategy building methodology to help align priorities and identify ways of getting the best value out of your technology investment. Our Small Business CRBM Success Program blends this Value Building Methodology with a comprehensive support contract tailored to your companies needs. This allows us to deliver all of the components required for a successful technology and human integration with that technology, while providing a realistic ongoing service and support program that fits with your budget. The quality of the consulting we are able to deliver is higher and the results are greater since there is ongoing collaboration with our entire technical and training team as well as your users and deployment team.

Conclusion

Regardless of the platform you implement you are going to want to make sure you take the time required to sort out a solid strategic road map. You will want to keep in mind that the software cost is not the total cost of ownership and that the advantage of open source really offers its greatest value when you can invest more in the training, support and strategic alignment of your team. Blending a service contract with training and consulting allows you to get a better value from your service provider through building a much stronger and richer relationship. When you can do all this effectively you are on a path towards success.

See related articles and links:

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• Let's talk about flat bid contracts and Value Building for Joomla CMS Web 2.0 Development
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• Lower risk through low cost pay as you go retainers
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• Social Technologies are revision in the model of power
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• Where do I get started with CRBM (Customer Relationship Business Management)?
• Open Source or SaaS CRM in Your Business
• Universal project management concepts
• Virtual Office Tools Save Money
• Web 2.0 boom and useful web tools

You can also visit our blog home at www.cnpintegrations.com/myblog/ for regular new posts.

For more information about the CRBM Platform and other educational resources be sure to visit: www.learningcrm.com

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