http://stevediamondconsulting.com Executive Technology Consulting & Development Services offered by Steve Diamond Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:42:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you were watching Saturday Night Live during the 1990s, you remember Jimmy Fallon's hilarious sketches as "Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy." If you weren't watching or if you'd like a refresher, scroll down to where I've embedded an example from YouTube. Nick Burns was the help desk guy from ... http://stevediamondconsulting.com/blog/i-am-not-your-companys-computer-guy.html For a limited time, to help launch my new interactive company page on Facebook, I'm offering free online consultations to anyone who joins my page as a fan. Just click the Become a Fan button in the Facebook box in the right-hand margin of this page. (Or you can just ... http://stevediamondconsulting.com/blog/free-online-consultations.html In part 1 of this series I wrote about a simple case where failure to define requirements for a software purchase ended up costing the business several thousands of dollars worth of wasted effort that had to be re-done. The software purchase price was just a few hundred dollars, so ... http://stevediamondconsulting.com/blog/how-business-automation-projects-fail-part-2.html I recently appeared on Nancy Brown's Business Guru Show on Blog Talk Radio to speak about "How To Avoid Technology Traps." You can hear the show (30 minutes) by following the link or you can play it right here: http://stevediamondconsulting.com/blog/requirements-analysis/how-to-avoid-technology-traps.html I'm starting a short series in How Business Automation Projects Fail. This is part 1, where I'll cover the case of an apparently simple project to install a common software package. In part 2 I write about a much more complex and expensive project. Business Processes Businesses run by following well defined ... http://stevediamondconsulting.com/blog/how-business-automation-projects-fail-part-1.html I find that many small-to-medium local businesses are hiding from their customers and don't realize it. They still market to new customers in newspapers and the Yellow Pages, and they still stay in touch with existing customers (if they do) by direct mail. But those traditional marketing channels are increasingly empty. ... http://stevediamondconsulting.com/blog/stop-hiding-from-your-customers.html