The Savvy CIO

At Highland Solutions we fully embrace the social and mobile movement. If you’re not on Google+ yet, you may want to jump over there and set up an account here. You can set up your account within an hour. We recommend fully optimizing your account with all contact information, tagline, all social properties, phone numbers, websites, and photographs.

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Welcome to Highland Solutions TV!  We’re going to share highly valuable information from Highland Solutions executives, channel partners, and other subject matter experts. You’ll discover educational information on how to increase sales and track return on investment for your marketing campaigns through SugarCRM, how to reduce cost with custom web development applications, and increase productivity through process automation. We’ll also give you real world examples on how we’ve been able to increase sales and reduce costs for companies similar to yours. Please subscribe here and share with your friends and colleagues.

As half of the country was digging out from under a record snowfall a few weeks ago, the inaugural Imagine eCommerce conference was unfolding in beautiful, sunny, snowless Los Angeles.  I had the good fortune of being one of the 650 attendees at this sold-out momentous conference. Highlights included a new release of the “Magento Community Edition” platform, the entirely new cloud-based “Magento Go” platform, and a food truck in the parking lot with three of my favorite words on it: “In-N-Out.”

Hot Topics at Imagine:

Application Program Interface (API)

• An API is a set of interfaces providing an increasingly rich set of services offered by web applications.
• They allow developers to communicate between independent platforms.
• They are used to enter a customer’s order from your eCommerce platform into your CRM platform.
• API’s allow an ERP system to look up data on customers in your B2B store
• Developers are able to create meaningful data to merchants and better experiences for buyers.
• They provide a simple and secure layer to perform high-level operations.

Magento “Go”

• Since its release, Magento’s range of APIs has grown steadily over the years, and with this latest release, it takes a giant leap forward.
• SaaS platforms like “Go” are some of the biggest beneficiaries of APIs as its core code is not readily accessible.

Magento’s Appeal to Merchants

• Its combination of scalability and ease with which customizations can be applied
• Small-scale merchants can tap into the extension marketplace for a colorful assortment of pre-written customizations.
• Multinational companies, like Samsung, utilize it for complex backend customizations.
• If a merchant launches a store on the “Go” platform and in six months has so much business he needs to scale up to “Enterprise,” they can rest easy knowing that their custom store will function exactly the same.

Magento’s Appeal to Developers

• It’s an easily scalable system.
• Developers don’t have to rewrite the customizations every time the client needs more bandwidth.
• Developers don’t have to explain to the client why it’s going to take as long to upgrade as it did to design the original site.

Lastly, I was surprised by the number of business owners present at Imagine in relation to developers.  The fact that so many business minds help create, define, and lead Magento’s vision is an integral part to why it is the most successful eCommerce platform in the market.  We as developers are indubitably creative and brilliant, but we’re also less business-minded than our business counterparts are. The fact that this platform engages both cross-spectrum users is what makes the Magento work exciting.

By Highland Developer, Brad Zasada

Highland Solutions will be attending this year’s IT Leadership Conference to forget IT-business alignments of the past and witness how business and IT are becoming virtually indistinguishable in some of today’s future companies. Computerworld’s annual Premier 100 conference will be showcasing an all new kind of business that sets the stage for innovation and revenue growth of a fully engaged organization. They have five big changes on the horizon for IT and success stories from FedEx Services, The Boeing Co. and CARFAX, Inc. to back them up.

Highland will be exploring the “future IT organization of 2020″ to support clients as they reinvent and re-envision their businesses using:

• Mobility and Social Media
• Pervasive BI and Analytics
• Cloud Computing
• Legacy Systems in a Changing World
• Virtualization to Private Clouds

Fellow thought leaders from some of the best and the brightest organizations will be sharing the secrets that drive a singular enterprise vision. Highland will be in the middle of it all.

Learn more about the IT Leaders Conference March 6-8, 2011 here.

At the 2010 TechExpo held in Chicago, Highland Solutions unveiled the Perfect Solution Fusion to several hundred attendees. The booth showcased how Highland’s technical know-how in combination with Winsby’s marketing and business development savvy can supercharge businesses by simply plugging into the SugarCRM platform.  The “Fusion booth” resonated with visitors by offering a holistic solution, making the connections for start-up, second stage and even mature businesses to decrease operational costs and bend up revenue.

“It was great to see so many Chicago based companies, both exhibitors and attendees, gather to support growth of commerce and capability among the local communities.” Brian Sutherland, Highland Solutions president, stresses Chicago still remains a powerhouse for both start-up and second stage companies working with local technology partners to help reduce operational costs and bend revenue up. “I was particularly proud of how our Highland Team worked alongside California based SugarCRM and Evanston based Winsby to engage with hundreds of attendees interested in the integration of CRM, business process automation, e-commerce and marketing. I’m certain we’ll be back next year as increased attendance and participation this year demonstrates local venues like this are catching on.”

And he was not alone.

Erin Fetsko - SugarCRM, Sales Engineer & Solutions Architect – North American Channel enjoyed how many of the attendees left the booth with their eyes open to the impact that having a well-defined sales database can have on their success as they grow their business. “Having a team available to deliver a complete solution: software, implementation and marketing manpower positioned us uniquely to offer the attendees great value. “

Jon Berbaum - Highland Solutions Client Engagement Manager’s big takeaway from the Expo was how CRM is generating so much interest in companies of very diverse sizes. “I spoke with companies ranging from a startup business with three staff members to established companies with hundreds of employees, and virtually all of them immediately connected with how a CRM solution could help their business. Gaining efficiencies, controlling valuable lead and client lists, extending data to the fingertips of mobile staff–a CRM has become a trusted, go-to solution for challenges companies of all sizes share.”

Erin Stoel – Highland Solutions Innovation Coordinator noticed whether or not people were familiar with Customer Relationship Management systems, most of them were interested in learning more about it. “I saw a lot of wheels turning while talking about SugarCRM and how companies could benefit from it.”

Elizabeth Neumaier – White Gazelle Creative and Branding Consultant enjoyed watching guests drawn to the booth, attracted to IT solutions that put people first. “Technology today should support, automate and celebrate the greatest asset businesses have  – people. That’s true innovation.”

The Perfect Solution Fusion offered attendees a fresh perspective on IT by not selling boxed products and focusing on the larger business goals for real world decision-makers.

Learn more about Highland Partnerships and Professional Allies.

For additional information contact Highland Solutions.

What gets us excited at Highland Solutions is seeing the success of our clients - great clients - amazing people - that have grown their businesses significantly over the last 3 years of this economic malaise and uncertainty.

I think it’s safe to say it’s not necessarily the start-up or creation of businesses that drives our economy, but the expansion of them. Growth-oriented firms have the greatest, most positive impact on the economy through the jobs they create, driven by their revenue increases and/or capital infusions. Some call these “second-stage companies”, these firms are those that have grown past the start-up stage and are well on the way to full maturity as a business (the credit goes to others mentioned below for these thoughts).

Here at Highland, we’ve been able to come along-side two forms of “second-stage companies”, the first are our clients that started their businesses based on a singular service or product that needed to “scale” based on efficient delivery to their customers via the web. The second category are our clients that have a longer business history and needed to modernize their operations and communications via automating key business and sales processes.

More on this later - but in the mean time if you’re interested in the topic, I’ll be participating in a panel discussion at DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurial Center in Chicago tomorrow morning October 15:

“In this panel discussion, you will see the compelling data that tells the story of second-stage impact on our economy. You will hear about the needs these companies have and why they’re under the radar. And you will meet some of the founders and CEOs behind these firms.”

You can go here for more information and to register (it’s free).

I’ll be joining Raman Chadha, Executive Director of the Coleman Center, and Penny Lewandowski of the Edward Lowe Foundation along with other Founders and CEOs.

Hope to see you there!
Brian

Highland Solutions will be exhibiting at the Chicago TechExpo on October 6 along with Evanston, IL-based Winsby, Inc., our business development and marketing partner. We are also pleased to welcome to the Expo California-based SugarCRM for which we are a premier reseller and integrator. This is the second year for the Chicago TechExpo which is expected to surpass last year’s attendance of over 1,200 business owners and entrepreneurs. As for exhibitors, last year we were among 100 exhibit booths supported by 88 local, national and international technology companies. The Expo reports 130 exhibitors for this year, so it seems the Expo’s reach is expanding. You may want to seriously consider attending.

Why should you come and why is Highland Solutions exhibiting?

For you, the Expo is:

• An easy way to get a pulse on what’s happening with technology in business.
• Designed to be about how a business decision maker can use, optimize and extend technology to make a real difference in your business.

Put another way, the Expo is not about technology companies trying to sell their products and services to other technology companies. The Expo keeps the focus on what decision makers need to be successful in business.

Highland Solutions is exhibiting because:

• Although our business is quickly expanding to a nationwide client base, Chicago is our home, and we love to talk with business decision makers in our local community.
• We’re there as a SugarCRM premier partner. If you want to find out more about CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and fundamental changes CRM systems are making in business come and see how Highland and SugarCRM are working together.

Another good reason to come is to meet our partner, Winsby, Inc. They have compelling success stories about bringing sales support and marketing services through a structured program that focuses on systematically expanding active accounts, building contact lists, consistently monitoring business metrics and increasing business opportunities.

Expo Details

The Expo on Wednesday, Oct. 6 is located in the UIC Forum and for the $35 registration fee, parking and lunch are included. Check out the details for yourself. If you can attend, take a look at the exhibit map when you arrive; you should find us either under Highland Solutions or SugarCRM. Stop by and say hello!

Hope you can attend!

CRM isn’t just a piece of technology. Orienting your business around knowing, serving and connecting with your customers is a process and a culture. Process and culture are truly the heart of CRM. And it isn’t easy.

But there’s no reason the technology that enables a customer-centric culture has to be hard to use. But frankly, CRM technology has often been a bear to work with.

Most CRMs take a complex piece of technology (encompassing marketing, sales, support, contracts, quoting, etc.) and combine it with a clumsy, click-happy user interface. That’s a recipe for disaster.

With today’s launch of Sugar 6.0, Sugar has taken a “good enough” user interface and made it exceptional.

Sugar’s new tagline with the launch is “CRM Made Simple”, and they’ve clearly targeted the user experience. I’ve been using the new Sugar interface for several months. In short, it’s incredible.

read more »

Every now and then I like to browse the websites of other technology companies. Recently, as we’ve been putting the finishing touches on a brand new website launch (coming in June!), I’ve been doing it a lot more.

While I’ve come across sites both great and terrible, I have noticed a discouragingly common trend. Many technology companies are overly specialized in a particular type of technology.

The most common example is Microsoft, of course. Legion are the IT companies who display their “Microsoft Gold Partner” badge and the long list of Microsoft certifications their staff holds. Such specialization is a good thing if you need assistance with a piece of Microsoft technology. However, if you were to approach such a company with a business problem to be solved or goal to be achieved, you would undoubtedly receive a Microsoft-shaped solution.

But what if Microsoft’s offering is actually inferior or overly costly for your business issue? read more »

We’ve all done it. We’ve walked into a retail store and bought something. There’s a comfort in being able to examine the item, compare it to similar products nearby, and talk to a salesperson. Looking around the store, it’s easy to see sale and guarantee signs. When paying for the item, we don’t think twice about pulling out our cash, check or credit card. We leave the store knowing that if we are not happy with the purchase, we can return it.

Things are not always so cut-and-dried when shopping online.

According to a study done by McAfee, most online shoppers wait one to two days between visiting a site and completing a purchase. Armando Roggio at Practical eCommerce has an excellent article that explains many of the hesitations that consumers have and the reasons they abandon their shopping carts instead of making a purchase.

• Shipping charges that were too high
• Going to other sites to compare prices
• Looking for coupon codes
• Not finding their preferred method of payment
• Confusion about contacting customer service with questions
• Reluctance about providing their personal or credit card information

How can you decrease abandoned shopping carts?

read more »