January
09

How Socialcast Helps 90 Minds Members Like Schulz Consulting Provide Exceptional Support

Posted By: Wayne Schulz    



 

Seven years ago I was one of the founding members of a (then) small group of Sage partners. We initially met at the annual Sage Software conference and kept in touch throughout the year by email. We’d exchange a few messages each month when one of us ran into a touch technical issue regarding MAS90 or MAS200.

Over time our membership grew until 90 Minds Consulting, with membership approaching 90 people,  is now perhaps the largest such Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 collaborative effort in the country.

Here are some thoughts about how we moved from a handful of people to several dozen – and in the process had to adapt our collaborative efforts to manage our growth.

Online software and technology makes it easier than ever to share ideas, technical inquiries and just socialize with colleagues across the state or even the world.

In 2005 a group of accounting software colleagues started sharing information via email groups.

We met at the annual Sage Software conferences, exchanged email addresses and kept in touch throughout the year.

We would exchange email when one of us encountered an unusual technology issue. This allowed for second opinion sharing.

Our first foray into this type of collaboration was simple email. From there we progressed to group email. And lastly (where we are today) is online collaboration software (Yammer or Socialcast are examples).

Here’s how we progressed:

1. Large email list that everyone had to hit “reply all” for

Pros: Available to everyone
Cons: Does not scale well for large groups, no ability to have different subgroups

Problem: You forget to hit reply all and start having private conversations. Soon half the group doesn’t benefit from the collective wisdom of everyone because email conversations become private (depending upon if someone forgot the reply-al).

This works well for small groups (under half dozen people). As the group grows you may become increasingly frustrated with simple email exchanges. Personally I always forget to hit “reply all” and my patience is short for this type of communication.

2. Graduated to Group Email (Yahoo Groups)

Pros: No need to “reply all”
Cons: Does not scale well for groups that have multiple types of members (interests) – such as technical, marketing, management

 

This is a free service from Yahoo. Google has one too. You can setup a group and obtain one email address. When members of the group send an email to that address everyone gets a copy of the email (yeah – no more ‘reply all’)…

This free group is nice because if members want to only read messages online (as opposed to having them sent to their inbox) they can go online and set their individual group options (one option is usually to read messages only online versus individual emails).

Problem: Too much email. Our group grew and grew to 1,500-ish email exchanges per month. That was WAY too many for us to have in our inboxes and still be noticing client emails, etc.

Problem: The group worked great for on-topic stuff but when discussions strayed (think politics) there would be some days I’d have 100+ emails about the latest candidate or celebrity gossip that someone in our group was hung up on.

Problem: Logging into Yahoo was too many clicks to get to the point where I could begin reading and replying to emails. We also couldn’t create special interest groups — all email replies were going to the entire group. For example our manufacturing experts were being hit with emails from our marketing experts. And our marketing exerts were reading technical information that wasn’t in their area of expertise.

3. Graduated to online collaboration using Socialcast (where we are today).

Pros: Scales well, can establish separate groups, can establish external groups so non-members can have limited participation, highly configurable for notifications, can still interact via email

Cons: Some platforms are free though only for company email domains, lock in of data

 

Early last year a small group of us (about three or four people) started using Socialcast which is an online collaboration platform somewhat similar to the old computer BBS (bulletin board system) of the early 1980′s.

This platform is operated on what’s often termed a “fermium” model. You may setup your own groups provided that everyone joining has the same company email address. If the company wants to take on administrative control or add features such as admitting non-company participants then there’s a fee involved.

Socialcast allows us to create separate interest groups for our members (presently about 90 Sage consultants across the United States).

In the past using email or email groups we were sending email to everyone in the group — no matter what their level of expertise – now with Socialcast we allow our members to join groups based on their interest.

We have these groups available for our members:

- Business of consulting
- General discussion & chit-chat
- Job Ops
- MAS 90 & MAS 200 Routine
- MAS 90 & MAS 200 Urgent (Configured to send all 90 members an email for any new post)
- Sage CRM
- Sage news and discussion

Here’s The Payback of Collaboration

For a nominal annual fee which covers the cost of our collaboration platform each individual member is connected to a nearly real-time support system. Since our consulting members are often working weekends, holidays and late nights – this extra access to support is invaluable should an invariable issue be encountered during the consulting project.

Our group also regularly provides opinions about:

  • Various third party add-ins for  MAS 90 or MAS 200
  • The readiness of various upgrades and product updates for customer use
  • Second opinions on specific industry usage of MAS90 or MAS200

 

This group grew from one simple activity – collecting business cards at educational conferences and keeping in touch with those people who regularly attended the conference.

The next time you’re at a trade show, conference or even a seminar – consider whether starting your own version of a collaboration group might be beneficial. Start small and take advantage of the free or low cost resources that can connect your contacts and provide you with a great depth of resources that you have locally. In return you can offer your customers and exceptional customer experience that they won’t be able to obtain elsewhere.

© 2012, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500 are registered trademarks of Sage. Have additional unanswered questions about MAS90? You may contact Schulz Consulting here.

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Related posts you might want to review:

  1. MAS90 Support Collaboration: 90 Minds Consulting Group
  2. 90 Minds Consulting Group launches web site
  3. Socialcast As A Tool To Bring Groups Closer
  4. 90 Minds Consulting Group
  5. Schulz Consulting providing MAS 90 and MAS 200 support and collaboration via Google Wave

About

This entry was written by a Sr Consultant who has worked with Sage 100 ERP ( Formerly Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200) since 1986. He provides technical support to companies located throughout the United States on all versions of Sage 100 ERP Contact Wayne via our info request page.The views expressed on this site are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinion or position of any other person or company. We are NOT in the business of providing tax, accounting or audit advice and you are advised to consult with your tax professional in such matters and not to rely on any information here as authoritative tax, technology or accounting advice. Information is subject to change without notice. Google+

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