Match Point
First define the problem, five innovators agree
by Elizabeth Martin
THE TECHNOLOGY and innovation finalists prove that this category is not reserved for the dot-coms and technology whiz kids.
Instead, finalists in Best Practices in Technology & Innovation were simply business owners who took a new look at an existing problem and applied their problem-solving expertise.
Speed is good
Louise Anderson, president and CEO of Anderson Performance Improvement, believes that speed is good, and delivered her message while wearing a racing jacket and a racing helmet.
“There are very few things that are really new and innovative out there,” says Anderson. “It’s how fast you can get your people engaged.”
Hastings-based Anderson Performance provides incentive programs to client companies. Its recently launched Incentive Dashboard application allows clients to set up and deploy rewards programs to key audiences and use built-in communications tools.
The dashboard concept had been an internal application that Anderson Performance decided to make available to its customers, she says. But the company struggled to find the right people with the right expertise to help the company transform its internal solution into a client-facing application. So they decided to do it themselves.
The venture wasn’t always smooth sailing. Making mistakes needs to be part of the game when you’re innovating, Anderson tells the group. It’s how fast you share and learn from those mistakes that determines whether they will benefit you in the long run. In fact, the company encourages its employees to share their mistakes with others.
“We reward people in monthly meetings for sharing their mistakes,” she says. The mistakes shared are then posted online and other employees are encouraged to read them and even take a quiz on them. The philosophy, says Anderson, is one of group learning.
Build your own
Joe Keeley couldn’t find the right application for his business need. Keeley, president and CEO of Wayzata-based College Nannies & Tutors Inc., needed a way to digitize the boxes of nanny and tutor applications for his franchise owners.
“There was not any off-the-shelf nanny and tutor program out there, contrary to popular belief,” he tells the audience with a laugh.
At first, Keeley tried customizing an off-the-shelf product, but the need for customization was greater than anticipated, and he “cut it off at about a $10,000 problem.” It was then that he realized he had to build the application from the ground up. The process of building and perfecting the application took about four years.
The solution benefits both College Nannies & Tutors’ franchisees as well as the nannies and tutors hired through the company. Franchisees can access real-time applicant information from any computer that has an Internet connect.
In addition, it provides a single-click view of all family activity and communication while also maintaining the forms and documents required for the business. The nannies and tutors themselves can log into a password-protected site to enter payroll hours, receive training and access other resources.
The investment has definitely paid off, Keeley says.
“It’s evolved into being the greatest asset of our franchise company outside of our brand,” he says. When potential franchisees wonder what the franchisor has to offer, this software is a key answer.
Wanted: wisdom workers
Tom Crane, founder of Plymouth-based Crane Engineering, has developed a new approach to addressing his customers’ problems. He calls it “forensic engineering.”
“You’re looking at the product of someone who has outgrown his own capabilities,” Crane tells the group. “The problems that the clients were bringing to be dealt with was more than one engineer could deal with.”
The company focuses on what caused a product to work differently from the way it was expected. For example, when a building collapses, Crane employees are brought in to try to figure out exactly what happened.
Crane and his team take a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding what happened, employing several types of scientific knowledge. He thinks of his staff as “wisdom workers” and encourages them to think of themselves in that capacity.
Once each quarter, Crane holds a staff development seminar that focuses on everything from motivation to ethics to what is and is not working within the company.
Crane says wisdom workers are different from knowledge workers because his employees use their experience in the field in addition to their formal training in the process of problem solving. Crane told the audience that he challenges his employees to “connect the dots” on problems.
In the world of forensic engineering, the client data are the dots and Crane Engineering employees make the connections using their knowledge and experience. Crane makes it clear that he considers his employees’ wisdom to be his most powerful tool.
“We are constantly evolving new technologies,” Crane says. “But in no case does that technology fall outside the expertise of our workers.”
Look inward first
Chris Taylor, director of professional services and solutions sales for Evolving Solutions Inc., agrees that speed is key to innovation. Evolving Solutions created a software solution for its clients in-house, and started by looking at its internal processes.
“It’s all about time to market and how quick you can respond,” he says.
Hamel-based Evolving Solutions builds and implements IT solutions for data on demand, business continuity, disaster recovery and backup, and restoration.
The company’s ITxRAY product allows it to scan a company’s storage structure to determine its current status. The benefit of this system is that it is a non-intrusive application that can run in conjunction with other systems and applications.
The application allows Evolving Solutions to promote both its expertise and its technology when serving its clients.
“We take the tools and data, we combine that with our consulting expertise, and we turn that back to the customer,” says Taylor.
The idea for ITxRAY came about when Evolving Solutions realized how many different systems the company and its clients were using to perform vital functions.
“We determined that we had a bunch of disparate systems out there,” he says. “They weren’t talking to one another.”
Evolving Solutions couldn’t find a solution that existed in the marketplace, so the company decided to build its own. He views that as a best practice: examining internal issues, and turning them into revenue-generating solutions for customers.
Beta tests work
Lou Del Monte, president of TMA E-Marketing, has capitalized on the emerging tool of podcasting as a method of marketing. Eden Prairie-based TMA has created a state-of-the-art podcasting studio for its clients, complete with the sophisticated sound equipment of a radio station and a sound engineer.
The studio and its staff allow clients to create high-quality podcasts as part of their marketing efforts.
Podcasts are multi-media files distributed online via syndication feeds. They can be played either on personal computers or mobile devices such as iPods and certain mobile phones.
Podcasts have skyrocketed in popularity for both marketing and personal purposes. In fact, Del Monte tells the audience, it took radio 38 years to gain an audience of 50 million users. It took podcasts three years, he says.
Del Monte also cites the advantage of podcasts being promoted independently of a company’s other marketing materials.
For example, TMA has recorded events at the James J. Hill Library, which then makes the podcast available on its Web site.
“Podcasting is going to revolutionize our lives,” says Del Monte. “I believe that is happening today.”
In addition to the podcasting studio, TMA has also created a directory of business podcasts at ibizradio.com. Podcast directories are important to the medium because of the volume of podcasts available to potential listeners. Directories allow users to sort podcasts by subject, date, or search existing podcasts. Any business can submit its podcast to the directory, and interested listeners can browse podcasts by topic.
Asked along with other panelists to “share their pain” when developing new technologies, Del Monte says his firm likes to approach “customers who love us,” and offer them a chance to try the new technology at a deep discount.
His firm gets to beta-test the technology that way, and quickly work out any problems.
And what if business owners invest in the wrong areas, in technologies that become obsolete? Del Monte and other panelists advise focusing on the underlying need, rather than on the exact hardware or method to fulfill that need.
For example, business owners will always need to communicate, and they’ll use methods ranging from the fax machine to e-mail to podcasting to do so. Don’t spend thousands on a fax machine with a 20-year warranty, because such hardware may become obsolete. Do consider better ways to fulfill the need to communicate as they develop, panelists advise.
FINALIST RUNDOWN
» Anderson Performance Improvement, provider of incentive programs: launched a new do-it-yourself rewards and recognition application called Incentive Dashboard.
Louise Anderson is president and CEO: 651.438.9825; landerson@andersonperformance.com; www.andersonperformance.com
» College Nannies & Tutors, nanny and tutor placement firm: created in-house software application for business management that franchise owners and employees can use.
Joe Keeley is president and CEO: 952.476.0262; joe@collegenannies.com; www.collegenannies.com
» Crane Engineering, engineering consulting firm: created a business niche called “forensic and analytical engineering” to determine why events occur for client companies.
Tom Crane is founder: 800.538.2797; tomc@craneengineering.com; www.craneengineering.com
» Evolving Solutions, information technology services firm: developed ITxRay, a way to scan a company’s storage infrastructure to see its current status.
Chris Taylor is director of professional services and solutions sales: 763.516.6500; www.evolvingsol.com
» TMA E-Marketing, Internet marketing firm: launched a podcast studio enabling local businesses to provide audio on demand, and to allow measurement of its effectiveness.
Lou Del Monte is president: 952.931.9960; ldelmonte@tmaemarketing.com
