Ricky’s Online Business Blog

How many times has your email provider given you the excuse that the data center hosting your email server is under DDoS attack? Shouldn’t they have chosen the most reliable data center in the first place? Why don’t they put that 99.9% uptime that they’re so proud of to the test now, in your hour of need?

How many times have you lost your email, and when you turn to your email provider, you realise that their promise to serve you 24×7 is an empty marketing ploy?

How many of you know how to monitor the uptime of your email or website? To show your providers that their servers are down and make your claim according to SLA, you’ll need proof.

Need someone to stand up for you? Just ask Pin.

About The Author

Are you a web or apps developer? You are invited to joinhttp://groups.google.com/group/friends-1-com-my

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my

Business owners today are well aware that they need a website to be more accessible to their customers, but they often make a vital error – they tend to approach web developers empty handed. Armed with nothing more than just the desire to have a website, business owners rarely prepare a defined job scope to help web developers understand their expectations. On the other side of the coin, web developers tend to be over confident, thinking that they’re experts in ‘everything.’

As a result, most web developers fail to grasp their customer’s true requirements, and most times, they rush to ‘close a sale’ and fight to stay afloat in the ever-competitive web industry.

Clearly, this situation and the disputes that usually follow, aren’t ideal for business owners or web developers. The seemingly endless design corrections and frustrating arguments that go back and forth will make the business owner think that the web developer is incompetent, and the web developer will start to label the customer ‘fussy.’ When the web developer doesn’t deliver on time, or the customer holds the payment, it becomes yet another project failure that could have been avoided in the first place.

In the world of business, they say the customer is always right, which is true in many ways. For many web developers, a project can sometimes appear like a line of HTML code, but that’s not usually the case, not everything is as it seems. A project is complex, and comprises of a good mix of management and development. Here’s what we think are the five pillars of a successful project:

1. The negotiator

The negotiator’s job is to meet customers and understand their requirements and expectations. He or she can also help customers decide on a budget, inform them about what a website can do, and understand a web developer’s job. When both sides agree on a preliminary budget, the negotiator’s role ends.

2. The proposal writer

A good proposal is one that can be understood by everyone. It shouldn’t be technical, but it should put the customer’s expectations down in written form. It will define the job scope and note what items are to be delivered.

3. Administration

The administration side of the operation follows standard procedures to get the paperwork done. They issue official quotations, receive purchase orders, send invoices, receive payments etc.

4. The project manager

This person forms a bridge between the customer and the web talent. He or she assigns tasks to the team and makes sure that deadlines are followed. It is also the project manager’s duty to inform the customer about the progress of the project and to ensure that everything is going to schedule.

5. Specialised team members

A web project has to be broken down to smaller tasks. This is one of the hardest parts of the project, as someone must search for talents and identify their area of expertise. Specialisation eliminates errors, is the key to keeping costs down, and improves the value of each team member.

A team member who works on a specific aspect of the project will eventually become skilled and excel. If you have a team of specialised talents, the possibility of the project going smoothly, and as planned, would be much higher than that of a ‘one man show’. Each talent must be given an introduction to their job scope and recognised for their professionalism. Ultimately, your database of skilled talents can help you seal the deal with your customers.

(Pin will write more on individual roles and how to turn expectations of web owners and web developers to writing)

About The Author

Are you a web or apps developer? You are invited to join http://groups.google.com/group/friends-1-com-my

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine October 2010 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

Continued from previous…

Understanding these diverse backgrounds of students, together with the values and behaviors that they bring to an MBA course could help us to understand and work with one other more harmoniously in our MBA study. Not appreciating these differences might bring to culture shock and even conflicts for certain students.  Imagine Rocky attends an executive MBA class consisting of senior managers and business people. He can get bored and lost following their discussion on obviously topics unrelated to exam. Now imagine Dato’ Muni joins a class of fresh graduates. He can easily get disillusioned by the lack of culture for learning and sharing.

Talking about learning, a learning-oriented student should have no problem identifying and appreciating the practical value of what is being learned in the course, especially if he or she has had some working experience. Take the theory of constraints in operations management. Dato’ Muni should be able to apply immediately in his business to identify the bottlenecks limiting the sales of his company, and so do something about it.

Also, consider the Big Five personality trait theory, career-minded Lisa can immediately use it to assess her own personality in terms of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism to discover her strengths and weaknesses, and the kind of work most suitable for her, in order to chart a career strategy for herself.

As for Rocky, studying the marketing concept can immediately unravel the secret of finding his love.  Consider what Peter Drucker says about marketing,

“There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available.”

Consider applying this in Rocky’s situation,

“There will always, one can assume, be need for some courting. But the aim of marketing is to make courting superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the guy/girl so well that you fit the target and sell yourself. Ideally, marketing should result in a target who is ready to accept your proposal. All that should be needed then is to make you available!”

Trust me, in MBA, there is just SOo much to learn!

Ricky Soo consists of both a business person and a working person inside. He thinks that no matter what our aim for MBA is, by no means go for it in full force. There will be heavy workloads and peer pressure to sway us away from our desire. But let’s not be transformed by the pattern of the crowd, but keep reminding and motivating our self to strain forward towards our goal post. Ricky can be followed at http://www.rickysoo.com