There are some certain difficult issues we at ITBrix US office are dealing with lately which have made me think and try to explain the reasons to why things get done so successfully inside ITBrix.
Why things happen?
This question is as philosophical as it is practical. I will try to answer and look at it from my micro economical tower called ITBrix/ConsultCommerce. For me the question is more like “Why things happen in ConsultCommerce and ITBrix?” or “Why we have results?” or “Why people like and use what we produce and maintain?”
I always try to break the more complicated things into smaller and simple elements. I always try to solve the big problems by breaking them into smaller ones, so easier and simpler solutions are required to solve big problems.
So looking at the question above – why things happen? ; and adding the portion “in ConsultCommerce” to it again gives me the opportunity to answer this question easily and precisely.
We started building our company with several important things in mind 13 years ago. We had to present a good product to our US customers, we had to maintain this product during the years to come and we had to make the people doing all those things happy. We also did not create the company with the idea to sell it for millions to bigger guys. Against all odds and all VC books, recommendations and rules – not to invest in companies run by married couples Tanya and I, together with our Best Man started building a team, a product line and a more productive life basically. So with those things in mind we started and managed to do a lot of things. We are still working under that credo even now – not to sell the company, not to make the great millions quickly or not to just take the customer’s money. No. Everything we do is planned, coordinated and a product of a team effort. Everything is done under the simple rules that it has to be a great product or service, that we will be taking a good care for it through the years and that the people making it should be satisfied and happy because of what they have done. Simple. What we do and live is a marathon, not a sprint.
These simple rules maintained a perfect team of developers together, a perfect team of people, real people. People that you can always trust and rely on. Darn hardworking and clever chaps. We have been through good and bad with those guys – they never complained. As long as the goal set was the right one, the proper one – the guys and gals in the office never had a rest till they actually see the proper results. That my friends usually never meant 9 till 5 working time.
The team in our Plovdiv office is what Tanya and I can consider as our most valuable business achievement ever.
It is very difficult to explain to some people here in the States why and how we achieve certain things. Even if we try – the message does not seem to get through. At the same time a lot of our US colleagues, customers and partners get this in the very first moments of interaction with our company. But this is normal – different people, different worlds.
Our guys have never been lazy, our guys have never looked for the easy way out. They always searched for the proper way and this is how they live and work – the proper way – without the concern how much more difficult this way is. That is the credo – the proper way…. and you darn learn how to take responsibility. For better or for worse you stand up and you are responsible for what you have done. Somebody else’s fault will never get the job done nor will make a customer happy!
I was recently asked how we managed to do a certain portion of the new WordFrame Help section for such a short time. I looked at the calendar then and I said – the time was not short at all, like 45 days since end of November … the days were darn short, the time was not short. How? Easy, you set the proper task, have a team in Bulgaria work about 12-13 hours a day and have the same size team from Colorado on the task and “voila” – you actually see the result – complete set of user manuals for WordFrame, FAQs, Partner tutorials and Administration Guides. Music in the ears and feast for the eyes of our sales partners. Weeell, no weekends bro’ , no skiing in Breckenridge or Vail although a few hours’ drive away, a little shorter on the Christmas shopping tours too, short on the sleep but you had a goal ahead, the proper goal. Interestingly enough, our tenacious efforts were contagious. Some of our partners started helping us with the website preparation and some of the help sections, the Web 2.0 Glossary for example. So again – our simple rules, especially the one about the team efforts proved very very right! So you see, it is easy.
Why things happen in ConsultCommerce and ITBrix? Easy answer – they happen because we get them done. You sit on your butt and get the darn thing done in such a way that you actually like what is produced. Noting happens when there is no effort. When there is a problem we do not point fingers – we get the things done. That is why the things in ITBrix and WordFrame are going well. That is why our customers can sleep well – they know we will take care of them the proper way.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Some ideas how the collaboration software can help the corporate world
Corporate World, collaboration, enterprise software, community and social media software. All great, important terms, complicated, full of all sorts of definitions and meaning.
For me those things are important. Really! Very! Because ITBrix does exactly that. We are developing software for 13 years now, a couple of our employees started signing the payroll docs in 1995. This is very important and not that common for a Web 2.0 company like ITBrix.
Our new Product and Service called WordFrame is actually all about the proper collaboration and organization, better communication, business process and sales integration within any company and corporation.
This, besides being my personal blog, is my WordFrame blog and I will be talking about and discussing WordFrame a lot here, but I will stress on key tools and functionality in general in this post. What should a new modern company has in regards to tools and organization to benefit those new social media and business collaboration tools that are available out there?
The first and the foremost thing is that the company (or the corporation) should be willing to change the way it is presented to the world, the way it works with its customers and vendor. The way it interacts with its own employees and most importantly with its competition and the media in general. If the will for a change is there – tools are there too. If the company does not want to change its perception of the new marketing techniques and tools, if the company does not want to lead and follow open conversation and discussion with the rest of the world – sorry, it will not work. So for those who want to change, even a little, here is what you can use in your company:
Wikis – very useful tool for online and offline collaboration. A document, a material or an article can be edited and created by more than one person at the same time. The people working on this document can be thousands of miles apart. The wikis can compare document versions, can restore previous versions and most importantly – the docs are available 24/7 online. It does not matter where you are, traveling or at what time you need the docs – the docs are there. What else – manageable interface, easy-to-work-with HTML or text editors. Almost no administrative cost
Blogs and Forums – Create public and open communities and discussion groups with your customers, vendors and employees – tools for open conversations. Talk to the world, tell them what you have and what you can do for them. Prepare to get slammed though – people are honest and sometimes angry – you may not like what you hear about your company or you. But there are also the positive opinions and of course- what better way to increase customer’s loyalty than honestly and openly tell your customers what the real deal and situation with your company is. Those are great tools. Engage your employees, customers and vendors in a non-stop conversation for how you can make the things they need and you have better.
Online file and document management systems - Just imagine all the files, documents and written materials accessible from everywhere, wherever you are, all the time! What can be more productive and easier? RSS feeds and RSS aggregators The RSS technology presents the easiest and fastest way to get the news or the information in general that you are interested it. Use RSS readers and aggregators to quickly obtain newly edited or changed content information from websites, news services or data collecting and publishing systems. A Specific RSS feed that will be processed by your RSS reader will contain only the information you have subscribed for and nothing more. Saving time …. Put RSS on your sites and systems – more and more people are using those. It is easy…
I will continue posting materials and examples on this topic … We at ITBrix know it is important
For me those things are important. Really! Very! Because ITBrix does exactly that. We are developing software for 13 years now, a couple of our employees started signing the payroll docs in 1995. This is very important and not that common for a Web 2.0 company like ITBrix.
Our new Product and Service called WordFrame is actually all about the proper collaboration and organization, better communication, business process and sales integration within any company and corporation.
This, besides being my personal blog, is my WordFrame blog and I will be talking about and discussing WordFrame a lot here, but I will stress on key tools and functionality in general in this post. What should a new modern company has in regards to tools and organization to benefit those new social media and business collaboration tools that are available out there?
The first and the foremost thing is that the company (or the corporation) should be willing to change the way it is presented to the world, the way it works with its customers and vendor. The way it interacts with its own employees and most importantly with its competition and the media in general. If the will for a change is there – tools are there too. If the company does not want to change its perception of the new marketing techniques and tools, if the company does not want to lead and follow open conversation and discussion with the rest of the world – sorry, it will not work. So for those who want to change, even a little, here is what you can use in your company:
Wikis – very useful tool for online and offline collaboration. A document, a material or an article can be edited and created by more than one person at the same time. The people working on this document can be thousands of miles apart. The wikis can compare document versions, can restore previous versions and most importantly – the docs are available 24/7 online. It does not matter where you are, traveling or at what time you need the docs – the docs are there. What else – manageable interface, easy-to-work-with HTML or text editors. Almost no administrative cost
Blogs and Forums – Create public and open communities and discussion groups with your customers, vendors and employees – tools for open conversations. Talk to the world, tell them what you have and what you can do for them. Prepare to get slammed though – people are honest and sometimes angry – you may not like what you hear about your company or you. But there are also the positive opinions and of course- what better way to increase customer’s loyalty than honestly and openly tell your customers what the real deal and situation with your company is. Those are great tools. Engage your employees, customers and vendors in a non-stop conversation for how you can make the things they need and you have better.
Online file and document management systems - Just imagine all the files, documents and written materials accessible from everywhere, wherever you are, all the time! What can be more productive and easier? RSS feeds and RSS aggregators The RSS technology presents the easiest and fastest way to get the news or the information in general that you are interested it. Use RSS readers and aggregators to quickly obtain newly edited or changed content information from websites, news services or data collecting and publishing systems. A Specific RSS feed that will be processed by your RSS reader will contain only the information you have subscribed for and nothing more. Saving time …. Put RSS on your sites and systems – more and more people are using those. It is easy…
I will continue posting materials and examples on this topic … We at ITBrix know it is important
WordFrame in the Blogosphere
WordFrame is getting more and more popular and loved these days. We have happily spotted two wonderful articles about WordFrame these past couple of days.
The first article is by David Tebbutt from Freeform Dynamics . The article correctly describes what we do, how we do it and most importantly, it points out a couple of places where we can certainly make the system better. Thanks David. I can assure you that with feedback and critique like that we will do our best and everything possible to convert your wise comments and advises into user friendly functionalities.
Here is the URL of the article as well: Click here to Go to the Original Article !
http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog/2008/02/25/wordframe-social-computing-with-a-pedigree/
The second article is from our partner in Australia Des Walsh. He described what WordFrame does very well. He presented WordFrame through his own “consulting business approach” eyes. He fit one of the WordFrame application towards the proper market segment and niche and pointed out the key differentiators between WordFrame and the competition. He did not miss the importance of the development team, the custom work and a couple of facts from our organizational and support structure.
Here is the actual URL for the article form Des: Click Here to go to the Original Article!
http://deswalsh.com/2008/02/27/new-enterprise-20-social-media-platform-wordframe-launched/
David and Des, thank you very much for the kind words and honest opinion.
The first article is by David Tebbutt from Freeform Dynamics . The article correctly describes what we do, how we do it and most importantly, it points out a couple of places where we can certainly make the system better. Thanks David. I can assure you that with feedback and critique like that we will do our best and everything possible to convert your wise comments and advises into user friendly functionalities.
Here is the URL of the article as well: Click here to Go to the Original Article !
http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog/2008/02/25/wordframe-social-computing-with-a-pedigree/
The second article is from our partner in Australia Des Walsh. He described what WordFrame does very well. He presented WordFrame through his own “consulting business approach” eyes. He fit one of the WordFrame application towards the proper market segment and niche and pointed out the key differentiators between WordFrame and the competition. He did not miss the importance of the development team, the custom work and a couple of facts from our organizational and support structure.
Here is the actual URL for the article form Des: Click Here to go to the Original Article!
http://deswalsh.com/2008/02/27/new-enterprise-20-social-media-platform-wordframe-launched/
David and Des, thank you very much for the kind words and honest opinion.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Food for all the WordFrame fans
Hello WordFrame fans, we received a couple of requests and questions about the WordFrame related groups we have in the different Social Networking sites and services available out there. We did create those in the very first release day of the WordFrame Community Platform - Thursday last week, February 21st, 2008.All the groups we created are open for anybody to join. Here is a small list so we can facilitate the joining process:
MyBlogLog
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/wordframe/
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8371249236
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/58566/0724AA0CF330
Thank you for the questions and requests and MOST importantly - thank you for the continuous support for our new WordFrame Brand! we promise to work even more diligently to get you the best possible social media and collaboration software.
MyBlogLog
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/wordframe/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8371249236
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/58566/0724AA0CF330
Thank you for the questions and requests and MOST importantly - thank you for the continuous support for our new WordFrame Brand! we promise to work even more diligently to get you the best possible social media and collaboration software.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
a day starts better ...
A day really starts better when you see a couple of important tasks reported as completed by your partners and guys you trust. Good. Very good, a couple of partners and clients will be happier today.
A couple of things to finish today that left from yesterday but the days tarts good. The Plovdiv office is doing an excellent job and this makes my work easier. Boz Zashev and Rumen Yankov are great in what they are doing for WordFrame and the rest of the guys are taking care of the other projects which are equally important , of course.
Besides the demos and conf calls yesterday and today I am writing a bigger piece about how and why things happen in ITBrix and WordFrame. The last 6 months were mind opening experience so i have lined up a couple of things that i want to share with everybody ...
Plus, that will be interesting. This week I am expecting to start testing the latest release of our our CMS that will accompany WordFrame in our quest for a web content management solution later this year .. the WordFrame Enterprise. I hope we can release the CMS in March so we push the product into sales long enough so we can have the proper customer feedback before inclusion in the WordFrame Enterprise ...
A couple of things to finish today that left from yesterday but the days tarts good. The Plovdiv office is doing an excellent job and this makes my work easier. Boz Zashev and Rumen Yankov are great in what they are doing for WordFrame and the rest of the guys are taking care of the other projects which are equally important , of course.
Besides the demos and conf calls yesterday and today I am writing a bigger piece about how and why things happen in ITBrix and WordFrame. The last 6 months were mind opening experience so i have lined up a couple of things that i want to share with everybody ...
Plus, that will be interesting. This week I am expecting to start testing the latest release of our our CMS that will accompany WordFrame in our quest for a web content management solution later this year .. the WordFrame Enterprise. I hope we can release the CMS in March so we push the product into sales long enough so we can have the proper customer feedback before inclusion in the WordFrame Enterprise ...
Monday, February 25, 2008
Starting to post in My Blogger blog again ...
This one will be fun to get back to as I was mainly doubling the information i was posting on the corporate blog of the previous company where I was since ... for a couple of years. Anyway.
I am starting this again, and this blog will be a littel different, it will be some more details about all the things around running ITbrix, being a family man with two kids and a wonderful wife and the great new product called WordFrame.
I am starting this again, and this blog will be a littel different, it will be some more details about all the things around running ITbrix, being a family man with two kids and a wonderful wife and the great new product called WordFrame.
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