Inside the Group

Westfall | Group is moving into the clouds

2010-03-15T10:44:16-05:00

Kansas City, MO | Local professional services firm, Westfall | Group announces today its decision to move many of its client services and back-end operations onto web-based applications, a growing trend known as cloud computing.

“This move will allow us to focus even more on the actual work we do for clients, while giving us better tools to collaborate with clients and the many professionals we utilize locally and throughout the world,” says Robert Westfall, Creative Director and Chief Strategist.

Westfall | Group provides services across a number of specialties including full-service communications, marketing and design, product/service development, and strategic planning to small and mid-size companies and organizations.

“With such a diverse set of people needed to be such a dynamic company,” notes Westfall, “it is an absolute must that we are able to pull together the best professionals for any given project and get them working together. Especially since we are often asked to implement multiple projects for the same client at the same time.”

As with any emerging trend, the definition of cloud computing has not been agreed upon, but in Westfall | Group’s case it will entail using third-party companies to house files for sharing and editing, real-time chat and messaging between clients and staff, scheduling and billing, data backup, storage and security.

“With many companies offering cloud services we are taking our time to really research and find what will work best,” Westfall said. “We are currently implementing a group of products from 37Signals including Basecamp for project management and client collaboration, Highrise for our CRM efforts, and Backpack for internal operations. We’re also experimenting with MailChimp for email marketing, an interesting charting tool called Tom’s Planner, as well as other mobile applications. As time goes on we will evaluate them and make changes as needed, with an eye always on whether a tool makes us better or not and with security of our data a top priority.”

The company hopes to begin rolling out the new tools in the next few weeks with complete implementation by summer.

INSIDE THE GROUP IS THE BRAINSTORMING AND DISCUSSION FORUM OF WESTFALL | GROUP

Small business optimism falls in NFIB index

2010-03-09T09:14:49-06:00

This morning the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released its monthly report on the mood of small business owners across the country. The index fell 1.3 points and has been below 90 for over a year, indicating continued concerns about the future and apprehension among small businesses to invest in new people, technology, or other expansions. According to William Dunkelberg, chief economist at NFIB:

Something is preventing owners from "pulling the trigger.” Very few owners felt that growth opportunities were solid enough to warrant expansion. Net job creation will appear in the coming months, but the gains will be painfully slow with timid consumer spending, especially in the service sector

In our own personal experience with clients, we see this pulling back as well. However, our clients have also realized that there is only so much retrenchment they can undergo while still keeping their doors open. As we often say, in good economic times, some businesses can practically just stick a flag in the ground and have customers flock to them. But when things turn bad, those same businesses without the foresight and ability to execute on a high level disappear. While businesses that keep providing value to customers and keep reaching out and compelling customers to spend some of their precious money on their products and services can actually thrive.

Certainly a business needs to be prudent and save money when possible to survive the downturn, but these are the periods where a heightened emphasis on the connection made with customers through product and service design, communication and marketing, and exemplary customer experiences are an absolute necessity.

INSIDE THE GROUP IS THE BRAINSTORMING AND DISCUSSION FORUM OF WESTFALL | GROUP

Cutting Edge Roundup (11-4-09)

2009-11-04T10:06:43-06:00

Been a busy couple weeks so sorry for being MIA, but I did make use of some of my absence by piling up a bunch of interesting ideas and innovations from across the web. Usually, I would add my own two cents to these cutting edge concepts, but I figured I’d just let you go and discover and dissect them yourself. Here’s a few:

Grease monkey meets green thumb. Toyota is in the plant business, sort of.

Here’s a energy source, there’s an energy source, everywhere an energy source. A company called Suncore is developing a new charger that uses any kind of light.

Delay on the runway? No problem. Emil Jacobs’ innovative airplane seating designs could make a long flight or a long wait more tolerable, if not enjoyable.

Batter up. Two enterprisi9ng minds offer a way to bring more competition to Major League Baseball

Technorati Tags: Renewable Energy,Airplane Design,Major League Baseball

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

Homeownership, good citizenship, and the causal misnomer.

2009-10-23T15:56:40-05:00

Earlier today I was working out, something believe it or not I do often, and saw a panel discussion on C-Span which included Jim Brinkman, a Senior VP of the Mortgage Bankers Association and David Crowe, a Senior VP of the National Association of Homebuilders. (Watch the video on C-Span here.)

The topics included the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the proper amount of risk the housing system can and should bear, and what the goal of home ownership should be. All in all an interesting discussion, even when it started to get bogged down into the economic minutiae that is common when a gathering of economists occurs.

One comment that caught my attention is something I have heard before and it was offered by Mr. Crowe. He stated that there is strong evidence that homeownership creates better citizens, more actively engaged in their communities and who act in a more responsible way with the weight of a home mortgage on their shoulders. Makes sense if you think about it…renters come and go while homeowners stay put and have a vested interest in improving the communities in which they live.

However, and this is not meant to be a revisit of college statistics, the evidence that Mr. Crowe cites make for a strong correlation, (defined by dictionary.com as the degree to which two or more attributes or measurements on the same group of elements show a tendency to vary together), but not necessarily a proven cause and effect relationship. To be sure, and I think if pressed he would admit it, he is biased in favor of increased home ownership as that equates into more homes being built—good for the people he works for.

Too cynical? Maybe, maybe not. I would say though, that I am involved in my community, care about the work that I do, and try to make a positive impact on my surroundings---and I am a renter. Yet from Mr. Crowe’s comments that really shouldn’t be the case, as owning my home is what would make me do those things, right?

The problem is that all too often statistics, study results, and anecdotal “evidence” are spun to meet the desired result of a particular constituency, thus diminishing the value of the work done by professional researchers and reducing the credibility that truly useful work will have in the future. Now I am not so naive to think that manipulation of data to bring about a desired outcome or support a chosen argument will ever be completely eradicated from our culture, but it should be a goal.

As I like to bring these little rants back to some context for those readers who run companies and organizations, I end with the simple point that research, observation, and experimentation should help guide our decisions and be the catalyst for new ideas and discussion. To confuse, misrepresent, or simply ignore data in an attempt to advance what you have already declared to be the right decision, is not only an act of arrogance but an act that will likely bring irreparable harm to your organization sometime in the future.

Soap box closed for the weekend.

Technorati Tags: Homeownership,Statistical Manipulation,Fannie Mae

phot0 credit: http://thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

They know better than you, or us (part 2)

2009-10-18T20:32:17-05:00

In the last article I gave the first three of eight lessons and insights I gleaned from a recent study (download here) by researchers Eric von Hippel and Pedro Oliveira titled, “Users as Service Innovators: The Case of Bank Services.” In the study they look at the role of end users in the creation of new services and how their own innovations often can be modified and implemented by companies in commercially viable ways.

Here are the remaining five things I took from the study that I believe should be top of mind for any organization looking to fuel their innovation processes:

There are three reasons that users bother innovating on their own: a) they have the "need" information--in other words they have some unique problem that needs solving. They live with the problem and they determine that solving the problem will improve their lives or work in some way b) they have a small need compared to a company which can't justify making such an investment or is even unaware that such an innovation would be of value, and c) the user has deemed making the innovation is of low enough cost in time and money and other resources to go ahead and prototype and test their innovation. If it would cost too much or take too long, the user may decide it is in fact not worth it and just live with the product or service as is.
User-created innovations tend to be more novel in how they go about solving their unique needs. Conversely, many company-created solutions tend to be improvements on already well-known needs (think product feature improvements vs. creating an entirely new use for a product that wasn't thought of before) The real breakthrough innovations come about from the second group, yet those of the first type can bring incremental improvements to a company’s bottom line.
Often a provider (the company) will take a user-generated innovation and modify it before offering it themselves and while possibly improving the experience for the users, these modifications can also remove the flexibility that the user was seeking by coming up with the innovation in the first place. An example given in the study is automatic bill pay which does make it more convenient for the user, but if the customer needed to skip a payment for some reason they have to go through a number of steps, thus making it less useful than one would think at first glance.
Creative companies should develop "user-innovation toolkits," which are carefully-crafted sets of resources that customers can access to allow them to modify, adapt, and create entirely new uses for the original products and services they were using. For example, some software companies open up their programming code to outsiders who will then be able to make changes and create new additions to the original software, thus not only resulting in a better product, but making the customers feel like a real part in the creation process and lock in their excitement and loyalty for a long time.
Products and especially services should be thought of as being part of larger modules from which numerous opportunities for innovation exists. Forward thinking companies are those that take this idea and apply it to their product/service offerings and in the numerous interactions they have with customers, something at Westfall | Group we call experiential design. By breaking down the entire process that a user goes through, from the learning about a product type and researching various options, to the process of buying, transporting and using the product, to the adaptations that a user makes to suit their specific needs--companies can gain incredibly valuable insights. These insights in turn may someday be turned into impactful new products, services, processes, or user-experiences that will give those observant companies a leg up in the marketplace.

Technorati Tags: experiential design,user-created innovation,innovation design

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

They know better than youor us (part one)

2009-10-15T09:36:13-05:00

A new study examines the role of user-created innovations in the services industry and sheds
light on the importance of observing and
involving users in the development of new
products and services.

Ever wonder where some of big and exciting creations of business come from? Sure you have, and even more likely you have said to yourself, ‘Gee, I could have come up with that.’ Well guess what, you might have and not even known it.

The working paper, “Users as Service Innovators: The Case of Bank Services” (download study here) by researchers Eric von Hippel and Pedro Oliveira helps shed light on one underappreciated source of great innovation---the customer. Their study takes a wide view of a number of banking innovations over the past thirty years and traces their source for being. Some came about through the work of the banks themselves, some were adapted from the unique creations of their customers, while others were a sort of hybrid of the first two. Some of the methodology and assumptions in the study are open to debate, and they readily admit that in some cases, determining who came up with an innovation was quite difficult, yet the conclusions they came to are supported by many other studies as well as numerous real world examples.

Below are eight lessons, guidelines, and interesting insights that we took from the study and use in our thinking for clients. We’ll share a couple today and the rest tomorrow.

Many times end users are taking it upon themselves to create innovations that the provider of the product or service should adopt and offer to all. Most entrepreneurs and inventors were first customers of products and services that weren't meeting some need or expectation. Companies that pay attention to these innovators while they are still just customers can sometimes bring them into the development process and thus keep the new creations within the organization.
If a service can be self-provided then you can expect user-created innovations. For example, users can't perform heart surgery on themselves (yet) so they don't have the ability to improve that process. But customers can and do transport their own groceries from the store to their homes and thus have the ability to develop clever new and useful modifications to that process.
Lead users or early adopters tend to be ahead of trends compared to the general market and expect greater benefits from the solutions that their innovations will bring to them. Put another way, they are often heavily invested in the products and services they use and will devote a lot of time and energy making them better. Because of this, these early adopting innovators should be indentified and given resources to bring their ideas to fruition, as their innovations are more likely to be commercially viable for bringing to the mass market.

Enough brain candy for today, we’ll cover the last five tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: user-innovation,customer insight,experiential design

photo credit - http://www.flickr.com/photos/smith/ / CC BY 2.0

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

Patrick Swayze: A Joyous Life, a Sad Death, and a Lesson in Healthcare Innovation

2009-09-21T08:57:00-05:00

The news of Patrick Swayze passing away last week from pancreatic cancer, caused me to feel the expected emotions of sadness and concern for his family to delight and appreciation when remembering his career which included pop icon movies like Ghost and Dirty Dancing and the legendary Saturday Night Live skit with the late Chris Farley. There was also a thought that popped into my head that I immediately connected with the healthcare issues of today. Mr. Swayze’s illness is hard to detect, painful to treat, and rarely ever stopped in its tracks—all in all a very tragic prognosis that he took with great strength and perseverance as he was determined to live life to the fullest with the time he had left. But the thought that entered my mind about healthcare actually was sparked from one of his tough-as-nails fictional characters.

There was a scene in Swayze’s guy-hero classic Road House, where his character Dalton, is being treated for an injury at the small town hospital. The doctor asks about his previous injuries (of which as a bouncer in a bar there were many). Swayze’s character pulls out a manila folder with all of his medical history, complete with x-rays, operations, etc. The doctor looks stunned at first but, as his soon-to-be love interest, she smiles and moves on with the procedure.

That idea of carrying around all of the procedures, diagnoses, treatments, and medical directives that a person has ever been given seems like a silly movie conceit, but then you stop and think that if in fact everyone did have such a manila folder, the improvement in medial outcomes could be significant. It has been well documented that incomplete medical histories or conflicting treatments from one doctor to another do result in poorer outcomes and that eliminating such errors and omissions would not only save lives but reduce overall healthcare costs.

Flash forward to today with the process of digitizing medical records, organizing them into easy-to-understand formats, and making them easy to share across the entire healthcare system. This is not a new industry as it has been around for years, but it is just recently getting the attention of the media and the public. A substantial amount of tax money in recent legislation is going to the expansion of the healthcare IT industry and more emphasis is being put on the need for collaboration among all of the stakeholders in the treatment and prevention of disease.

It’s about time.

As a company that works in the innovation and design worlds, the growth of healthcare IT is a very instructive lesson into how innovations can come about and the impact they can have on how things get done. Think about it for a second: twenty years ago, Dalton had the wherewithal to know that a doctor would need to know his previous medical history in order to treat future ailments. he took it upon himself to compile the information and have it ready when needed. Yet in real life, expecting an individual to do such a thing would be impossible, if simply for the fact that hospitals and insurers would never let a patient have all of that info in the first place, nor would an individual have the time or ability to make the data useful to share.

Seeing a need for a change (people should have their histories at the ready) and recognizing the impediments to making that happen (unwillingness by providers to share the info and inability of individuals to do much with it anyway) forward thinking companies saw both reward for themselves and for the public if they could find a solution to this problem. They relied on expanding technologies to make data compiling easier and more usable. They provided a compelling (and ongoing) sales pitch to providers and insurers that this healthcare IT investment will pay great dividends to them in both dollars and most importantly, medical outcomes for patients. And now we have a burgeoning healthcare innovation industry that is creating real, positive impact.

The long-term goal is that not only will patients be able to receive the right treatment for their immediate medical problems but that eventually a comprehensive system of information sharing will allow researchers to identify even better treatments and cures for most diseases. Sadly that time may be far in the future and too late for many, including Mr. Swayze, but there can be no argument that we have made great advances and will continue to do so. as long as there are people willing to ask the questions and look for solutions wherever they may be.

Now did healthcare IT come about because Dalton had the manila folder? Not likely. But then again, as is the beauty of innovation thinking, one of today’s IT innovators might have seen that movie all those years ago and the idea stuck in their head, so maybe it did. Either way, thank you Mr. Swayze and Godspeed.

Technorati Tags: patrick swayze,heathcare,IT,innovation

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

Updated and Expanded LinkedIn Profile

2009-09-16T21:17:39-05:00

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, I was in the process of evaluating various social networks that we would consider devoting some of our time at Westfall | Group on. We got some feedback and have been encouraged to build up our network on LinkedIn so I have gone back and updated my oft-neglected LinkedIn Profile here.
I’ll be spending some considerable time in the next few weeks adding more content to the LinkedIn profile as well as possibly starting a group there or participating in some of the Q&A discussions. We also setup a Westfall | Group company page on LinkedIn as well.

As always, if anyone has any suggestions of content we should put up there or other places where we might find spending some of our social networking time of value, please let me know. We’ll be debuting a new Facebook presence in the coming weeks as well.

Technorati Tags: linkedin,social networks,facebook

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

Fool Me Once, Shame on You, and Goodbye (Ugh!)

2009-09-02T17:05:11-05:00

TODAY: T-MOBILE

It’s not often you come across something so blatantly absurd that you feel the need to stop what you are doing and write about it, but then again you’re not me. (You are in fact fortunate in that regard, but I digress). Let me start with a little set-up to the story.

I am on the move often and like many of you need to stay in touch with the wired-world constantly. As a result, I have broadband at the office, dial-up as an emergency back-up, and a separate Wi-Fi account through T-Mobile, which among other things is my gateway to the Internet while at my neighborhood Starbucks. As I went to check my bank account online (something I have cut down to three times a day…security you know) I noticed that my monthly charge from T-Mobile WiFI was $29.99 instead of the usual $19.99. Now ten dollars may not seem like a lot but when you have a Starbucks addiction that amount of scratch can set me up for a whole day, maybe two. So needless to say i immediately grabbed a phone to call and complain to T-mobile, a phone company (something always amuses me about that irony, but anyway).

After playing the “press 1 for a maze of self-help menus or press 2 for an actual human” game, I reached my human counterpart in this negotiation. (I should say now that T-Mobile WiFi’s customer line is pretty easy and a person answers fairly quick—it also helps that i know the menu by heart since I have to call several times a week with connection issues).

Once the customer service rep finished her scripted intro I inquired about what I assumed was a billing error. To my chagrin I was informed that their rate plan had changed and that I should have been notified by email in July of the change. Now I don’t know about you but I get anywhere from 100-1000 emails a day in numerous accounts so it is possible I missed this alleged correspondence, so I'll plead guilty to that. But what comes next really puts the smear of Ugh! all over T-Mobile.

I told the rep I had no recollection of an email and furthermore, even if I was notified, I saw no justification for the increase, considering they were providing no additional services or improvements to existing services. Also, I reminded the rep that her competition (AT&T) offers nationwide Wi-Fi for $19.99 and is available at all the places I most frequent. I then finished with the standard “I’m not paying that much so cancel my account.”

Before I had sounded the “t” in account, she countered by apologizing for my being unaware of the change and offered to credit my account ten dollars. I told her thanks and told her I was still leaving. Now here comes the best part.

”Well Mr. Westfall, since you have been a long-time customer I can put you into our special plan back at $19.99.”

“Wow! Just for me you are going to give a special rate plan price, which happens to be the same price I paid up until last month, for exactly the same hit-or-miss service I have been getting for the past 20 months (not exactly ‘long-time’)?”

”Yes.”

”So why raise the price at all if one phone call from me and you’ll put me right back where I was? This sure sounds like a game you’re playing.”

”No game sir, in fact we have a lot customers who prefer to pay the $29.99 rate charge.”

”Why on earth would someone prefer to pay more than they have to for the same service they were already getting?”

Silence. In fact at this point the conversation really deteriorated into a series of starts and stops, “umms” and attempts to get back on script. But the damage had been done. Now it is possible that this CSR really believed the words she was saying, but I venture it more likely she doesn’t. It’s the line she is told to give, in hopes that the receiver of such idiocy will think it actually makes sense. Of course I am not your average idiot—I would say I am leader of the idiots—and even I smell dead fish.

Now I have no desire to get sued, and no, T-Mobile is not a former client that I have animosity towards (in fact after this experience I would say they may need to hire my company), but it sure sounds like a classic “let’s slip this onto everybody’s credit card bill and wait for them to find it” scheme. Exhibit A – Many people pay their cell bills by credit card and amazingly, many of them don’t read their itemized statements. So if you wanted to add a nominal increase to an account this would be a way to do it.
Exhibit B - With such little effort on my part I was immediately offered a “special” plan at my old rate without even one ‘I need to ask my supervisor’ which leads me to believe they have a plan in place for the callers like me who actually monitor their finances.

Again…no proof of a scheme, no attempt to slander T-mobile or cause them harm…just retelling my story. A story, by the way, which I think is being experienced by many T-Mobile customers at this moment. As for harm to T-Mobile I think that will come on its own if it is shown that there really was a plan to deceive or mislead customers.

But it is not my job to investigate, in fact I have many jobs already. Today I am merely taking the role of “consumer advocate” in urging other T-Mobile customers who have seen their bill go up to call them just like I did. As for my regular role of “helper to businesses trying to do things better and smarter” all I can say is that if you are using a business model that calls for deception, disingenuous dealings with customers, and a hope that the public won’t notice what you really are up to, then not only do you face a good chance of getting an Ugh! from us, but you are ultimately destined to fail.

At least one can hope.

Technorati Tags: T-Mobile,Billing Practices,CustomerService

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group

Where is the Collaboration Kansas City?

2009-08-24T09:49:35-05:00

Last week on KCPT’s Kansas City Week in Review, the topic of a new $575 million Museum of Natural History project in Overland Park, KS was discussed. KC Star Columnist Steve Kraske brought up the point that this project will have impact on the entire metro and should have at least been discussed among the metro’s cities in that context. I wrote about this very topic a long time back on our old blog when another similar situation had arisen. I think it is worth revisiting so below is a reprint of that article.

…But Teach a Man How to Fish…(reprint)

Sometimes trying to understand the thinking of others, especially elected leaders is just too much "above my pay grade." Take for instance Kansas City's mission to out do Mission in getting a "tourism boosting, best in the region, solve all of our problems" aquarium. Put aside the fact that Mission has an actual development in the pipeline and that although KC officials say this has been in the works for years, only after Mission's announcement did a KC aquarium become a public topic. (Ed. note: since this article originally was written, the topic of an aquarium has somewhat faded into the background, however that is not to say it isn’t still being considered in some fashion.)Forget all that because there is something more important that is being shown here--actually two things.

The first thing "Fish-gate" shines a light on is the complete lack of cooperation and collaboration among Kansas City, at over 200 square miles and half a million residents, the biggest city in the metro, and the other counties and municipalities in the area. While this problem can be ascribed to any major metropolitan area in the country, the KC Metro seems to have perfected it. Look at some quick examples.

Water Parks.
The metro will soon have at least three water park offerings within approx. a 45-minute car ride of each other. Now water slides are great, but do we need this many water recreation facilities?

Retail.
Just in the Northland KC alone you could create a small town out of all the empty store fronts in malls, strip malls, and "lifestyle centers." And yet more bigger, higher-end developments are in the works all over both sides of the state line.

Casinos.
Kansas City can barely support the casinos already in existence, but with the addition of at least one, if not two casinos within a short drive to Kansas, what are the odds that one 0f KC’s casinos (maybe Isle of something) bites the dust?

Transportation. Sewers. Bi-State Initiatives.
Do we really even need to mention the lack of collaboration on these issues?

By now you may be asking what is the point. Well the point is that by failing to look at the metropolitan area as just that--an area, where synergies and efficiencies should be maximized, we spend more time trying to outdo each other. Competition is fine, but should we be competing with our own suburbs and nearby cities or instead with St. Louis, Omaha, Oklahoma City, etc? I vote for the latter.

That brings me to the second concern which I will briefly mention here and pick up again (and often) in later articles. Cities and states are fighting to attract the tourism dollar. Shopping malls, racetracks, water parks, casinos, restaurants---all rely on people's disposable income and discretionary spending. When times get tough and that spending goes down (THINK $3 gas) (Or 11 percent unemployment, Ed.), will all of this development really help or will it come back to bite us?

I don't know about you, but the answer scares me quite a bit.

(Sorry to end on such a downer, but sometimes the tough questions just can't keep being pushed down the road...to a new golf course...or a new hockey arena…or the best new BBQ joint across the street from the previously best new BBQ joint...or a…)

Technorati Tags: Kansas City. Economic Deveopment,Urban Planning

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group