Category: Process Improvement

Workplace by Facebook

Could Facebook Workplace be Right for Your Startup?

Posted fgericPosted in Process Improvement, Startups

Facebook recently announced that they are rolling out a new platform for workplace collaboration called, unoriginally enough, Workplace by Facebook.

What’s Workplace by Facebook? 

Workplace is a collaboration space for teams and companies to collaborate internally. Providing rich functionality to facilitate collaboration and help foster corporate culture development with remote locations and virtual workers.

What are the Major functions of Workplace? 

  • Workplace offers voice and video calling
  • Video live-streaming
  • Workplace and work chat (iOS and Android)
  • Unlimited storage for files, videos and images
  • Communications between disparate companies
  • Integration to other important apps and software (in enterprise version)
  • Administrative controls for managing your community (enterprise version)
  • Monitoring tools for IT (enterprise version)
  •  APIs for custom integrations and bots (enterprise version)
  • Integrations with e-discovery and compliance providers (enterprise version)
  • Single sign-on (SSO), Active Directory support (enterprise version)
  • Integration with G Suite, Okta, Windows Azure AD and others (enterprise version)

How much does Workplace cost? 

For standard users, it’s free. For premium users who need enterprise functionality, it’s $3 per active user.

Is Workplace by Facebook Viable?

Yes, it was rolled out in beta to some very large enterprises like Cambell’s, Hootsuite, GoPro, Booking.com, Volkswagen and others. It appears that most of the bugs have been worked out and it’s ready for primetime.

Is it Right for Our Company?

Well, that’s hard to say. It’s free which is very attractive for cash strapped startups. The platform has some great functionality that can save startups and small business a lot of money. The free video and audio conferencing alone can be a real game changer.

Whether it’s right for you is largely a matter of interpretation and preference. In light of recently disclosure of Facebook data being shared, some companies may not feel comfortable sharing confidential, company information on Facebook’s network. Although, it should be noted that Workplace is GDPR Compliant as well as being ISO27001, SOC2, SOC3 and EU/US Privacy Shield compliant.

Where Do I Learn More and Sign-up

You can sign up and learn more here. 

 

 

 

five_questions_before_an_acquisition

5 Questions to Ask Before Your Next Acquisition

Posted fgericPosted in Process Improvement, Strategy

If you’re in the process of acquiring a new company or considering it, there are a lot of factors that you must consider prior to pulling the trigger. Much of the emphasis around the due diligence involves evaluating a company’s financials, intellectual property and securing key personnel. One area that is frequently overlooked is marketing.

There are key areas of an organization’s marketing efforts that should be evaluated. We’ve distilled it down to the 5 that we view as the most important:

  1. Is your branding/messaging/positioning correct for your target market(s) – Are the company’s offerings correctly positioned? Are they maximizing margins by cross-selling? If a company’s marketing message is off, this can be an area of serious potential value-add.
  2. Are using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system? If a company isn’t using a CRM system and doesn’t formal systems and processes, you may be at risk of key personnel walking out the door with the entire customer list. Additionally, if the company isn’t using a CRM system, this is another area with a good potential for improved efficiency and improved revenue streams.
    The important thing is to know what you’re buying!
  3. Are using a Marketing Automation platform – A properly implemented marketing automation system can be a game changer. Particularly if you are using workflows to create nurture/drip campaigns to nurture prospects through the sales process. Marketing automation cannot only help you have more consistent, predictable marketing activity, it can also produce more predictable and stronger results.
  4. Is your marketing budget correctly allocated? Can the company’s marketing department point to the key areas of marketing spend and identify the areas that are producing the best return-on-investment (ROI?) Unless they’re using a closed-loop reporting system, it’ll be difficult to determine if you have a proper allocation of your marketing spend.
  5. Do you have the right personnel in the right seats in your sales and marketing departments? Having the “right butts in the right seats” is critical to a successful marketing effort. High level vision must drive the strategy and the strategy should drive tactics. Tacticians are rarely great strategist; and strategists will become bogged down in the minutia of low-level tasks. It’s all about the right person for the right job? How do you know if you have the right person in the right role? When you do, you’ll see efficiency and results.

Are you preparing to acquire a new company? Do you need to know more about their marketing? We can help! Contact us!