I have for many years been quite shy about singing my own praises. I am gradually getting better at it, but still feel uncomfortable.

Why is it that people who can “DO IT” tend to be shy about telling others, where as people who “CANNOT” are very apt at telling everyone the good news story?

I met a team last week who are working on a daily basis with industry leaders and celebrities who are known to every one of us, but they were not sure whether to mention this!

I will bore you with a very short story.

I used to live in Dorset and did the events circuit. There were two speakers who always did the rounds and over a period of a year regularly became the defacto keynote speakers. I would sit and listen and think that I really hadn’t learnt anything, but maybe I had missed something.

After sometime I started bumping into them in a work context, they were utterly incapable of doing anything. Not only did they not understand the basics, they were giving bad advice and losing clients money.

It reminds me of the saying:

The Blind Leading the Blind!

So if you indeed have perfect vision, then tell people about it! Do not hide your light under a bushel.

This is where I need to listen to my own medicine:)

Many companies are paying too much for their hosting packages!

We have been working with one company who has had a hosting package in place for about 6 years now. Back in 2006, the world was a very different place. At the time they were paying a very competitive £2500 a month; using virtualisation we have managed to cut this to under £100 a month.

A virtual server for all intents and purposes looks like a real server. However you are sharing the real hardware with others who are hosting their virtual servers on the same hardware. The underlying hardware is a powerful server well capable of this mode of operation.

Dedicated servers are real physical servers where you control the whole box. These prices have also tumbled, so ask your developers if you can benefit from these savings.

The Real Costs

However, be aware that for many systems you are not just paying for the use of the hardware, you will often be paying for the expertise of the developers who maintain your software. This is not a problem, after all you may not have the expertise to do it yourself.

But if you are paying for a combined service, make sure you know what you are paying for each component. For example if the hosting is £5 a month and you are paying £200 a month, then are you getting £195 worth of value from the developer. The developer may not be making many changes month on month, but are they providing program updates as part of the service? How much is peace of mind worth?

The trick here is to understand your costs and pay the price based on knowledge, not ignorance. Good developers and suppliers are worth their weight in gold, however there are also many bad ones out there!

• @timbarlow decent candidates help, but I am sure you have done your preparation #
• @borderscreative @@IanBurton_ @@vivseeley @@Texthouse @@SaraMathieson Sarah tells me you are in training. Happy to fill a space if short #
• You thought you job was risky. Taken by me this morning! http://t.co/X7rPmhWg #

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Few company owners have got to where they are by being stupid!

However many companies start with modest beginnings and invariably the skills that are employed are the skills of the founding directors. As the company grows however, the number and breadth of skills required can quickly swamp the founding directors.

This is not necessarily a problem as you hire and outsource to fill those gaps in your knowledge and ability.

I am working with an organisation at the moment that has grown from modest beginnings into a multi-million pound operation. The directors understand the deliverables of the business and the underlying products it is selling.

However the directors have very little Technology knowledge. Unfortunately in the case of this company, it turns out that their suppliers are little wiser.

This brings to mind the old quotation

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. “

The reason a number of project are running and running, is because their suppliers are barely a page ahead of the directors themselves.

After a short brainstorming session, it turns out that the directors instincts were absolutely spot on, however they were being smoke screened by poor suppliers.

So the moral of the story, “TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS”!

• Hackers down Microsoft India site http://t.co/wH3Fx3PL #
• #AptekKelso10K Kelso Crawlers training runs each Tuesday at 18:00, meet at Abbey Fitness in Kelso, contact me for directions. #
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• RT @DigitalTrends: Chinese officials raid retailers, confiscate iPads following trademark ruling against Apple http://t.co/TP3T2WwZ #
• Mobile money – has its moment come? Not at all convinced I like this, maybe just old fashioned http://t.co/ltkaNp8o #

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• If you have monthly, regular accounts with suppliers, keep an eye on your statements, the big guns are sneaking through substantial rises. #
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• A study of thousands of top employers worldwide reveals that 96% picked mindset over skillset as the key element in successful hires #
• #AptekKelso10K we can announce Aptek is again sponsoring this running event on Sunday 15th July 2012, all levels welcome #
• @timbarlow Excellent. I love the fact that they used your image URLs how fortuitous for you:) #
• CRM, Contact Relationship Management or Customer Relationship Management? Depends on your viewpoint! #
• "Our strategy is to score goals and win matches" quote from a football manager today! What a cunning insight he has #
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• Windows 8 Start button – GUI, more link the smart phone! http://t.co/4Kp9xR7q #
• Does anyone have first hand experience with ekmpowershop? #

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This client is a bricks and mortar retailer with an eCommerce website.

They are very active in both producing high quality product photography, but also location photography showing the products in use.

The photography team have been taking a huge amount of time when they get back to the office after a shoot, matching the photographs against individual products, uploading the images and then updating the back office systems to link the product to the image in the database.

The solution is to integrate the camera to the back office systems.

We have developed a system that has allowed the photographer to select a product, using both barcode scanning and product searches.

Once the product is selected all the photographs that are taken are displayed against the product on the tecthered PC. Using a wireless transmitter linked to the camera the images are transfered to the PC.
The images are reviewed and marked as appropriate. The image may be marked as the main product photo or a product in use photograph. Any unmarked photographs can be discarded is wanted.

Once the photographer is happy, he completes the process.

The process completion involves the PC resampling the images so they are suitable for the target environment e.g. Web and the database is updated.

Once a good communications link is available to the internet, the images are moved to backup, website and the central system database is updated.

Something I have noticed recently, both myself and with clients.

A number of the bigger companies are starting to hike their prices. If you look online, their headline pricing may be competitive. However if you pay monthly, a number of the companies are hiking the monthly fees.

Two good examples:

1. Intuit – Quick books.
   A number of years ago we switched from paying annually, for the Payroll and on an adhoc basis for program updates, to paying monthly. There was no real cost saving, rather the security that the program was up to date and you had the latest PAYE data files.

   We have been paying £40 a month for a number of years now. However at the start of this year, I noticed that the last couple of direct debits had leapt to £70. It truns out that the company had decided to apply a price hike to its existing loyal customers. Interestingly as soon as I queried it, I was transferred to the “people annoyed about the price hike” team. Within minute the figure has been dropped to £50. Unfortunately I could not get the figure back down to what it was (25% increase), but managed to avoid the bigger increase (75%).

   So keep a close eye on those recurring payments. The Intuit rise was initially £360 a year, I have managed to grudgingly reduce it to £120 a year.

2. EcoLab – Environmental Health
   A client has been using EcoLab. We noticed that last month they have just had a price hike of 10%. On querying it, again they were put onto the  “people annoyed about the price hike” team.

It appears that a number of the bigger players who have people on regular payments are slipping increasing in under the radar. I can see that they maight be wanting to increase prices as we all would, but when they have a team in place to handle the complaints, that is for me getting a little fishy!

It also shows a flagrant disregard for the ongoing downward pressures that many companies are still facing.

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• Civil servant tax review ordered,who hasn't got there hands in the till then? http://t.co/g1risgMT #

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• These phone calls for loft insulation, claim to be government grant led. As I am receiving several a day, are we paying for them? #
• RT @BBCRoryCJ: Apple posts record quarterly revenue of $46billion, record profits of $13bn, sells 37m iPhones, 15.43m iPads #
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• Man did not notice nail in brain, and we thought our jobs were scary:) http://t.co/Su29rXIM #
• Facebook 'protected by own users'? http://t.co/3LO9m0e5 #
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• BBC News – The battle over your data http://t.co/wys79Afy, are you happy for your data to be shared? #
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• Web economy 'to double by 2016' http://t.co/38ihB2vh #

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