More Reasons To Attend Sage Summit 2013

Earlier this week I posted an article about why you should attend Sage Summit and mentioned that several sessions will help you bring innovative ideas back to your company. Here is a list of what I think are the “must attend” sessions.  They are a mix of some in which I’m presenting and some that I will be attending.

• C-184: Making Your Business Antifragile (Wednesday, July 24, 8:30am-10am, Chesapeake G) – Based on the work of author and professor, Nicholas Taleb, this session will raise the question of how we can apply the abstract concept of antifragility to strengthen our businesses and make them less susceptible to uncertainty. It will be a collaborative dialog between attendees and Ed Kless (Senior Director, Sage), Robert Wood (Owner, DDF Consulting Group), and me. The concept of antifragile is “beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.”
• C-185: Creating Strategy in a Small Business (Wednesday, July 24, 10:30am-12pm, Chesapeake G) – Even small organizations can create and execute meaningful strategic plans. However, to reach that goal requires us to say “no” to stuff we usually say “yes” to. Ed Kless invites you to an open dialog about how best to go about creating a strategy for your small organization.
• C-183: Top Ten Business Myths (Wednesday, July 24, 2pm-3:15pm, National Harbor 11) – If you are interested in having a conversation about business myths, examining our most deeply held beliefs, and how to either dismiss them or at least think differently about them, join Ed Kless for this session.
• C-186: Panel: The Strategic IT Leader (Wednesday, July 24, 3:45pm-4:45pm, Chesapeake G) – If you are an IT leader or have one in your organization and would like to increase the strategic value you provide to your company, attend this panel session to learn from other IT leaders how they have increased their value by thinking differently from how they have in the past.
• C-188: On Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It (Thursday, July 25, 2pm-3pm, National Harbor 13) – Almost five years ago, I read Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. They described a concept they call a ROWE (results-only work environment). They were right, it was the perfect answer for making work not suck. I implemented a ROWE in my company and it has produced great results. The basic premise is I changed my mindset to focus on real results and not on efforts. In this session, I will lead a conversation about Cali and Jody’s new book, Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It. We will look at the ROWE environment from a management perspective and talk about how to implement a ROWE in your organization.
• C-189: Initiating a Project in a Small Business (Thursday, July 25, 3:15pm-4:15pm, Chesapeake C) – Ed Kless and I would like to start a conversation around the idea that, in small organizations and teams, projects are rarely initiated properly and thereby achieve less than optimal results. We will open a dialog with you about how best to initiate new projects in your organization.
• C-201: In Defense of Business (Thursday, July 25, 4:30pm-5:30pm, Chesapeake G) – Is business a noble yet frequently rebuked calling? With the constant bombardment from the media questioning the nobility of business, it is oftentimes difficult to see how businesses profit not only themselves, but all of society. So much so that the notion of having to “give back” to the community is redundant. If you are interested in learning more about this defense of business and the market, please join the conversation with Ed Kless.

Mark these on your calendar.  You will not regret attending these great sessions.  I hope to see you there!

 

Sage Insights Session – GEN24 – ROWE for Small Businesses: Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It

Sage is holding their annual partner conference, Insights, in Denver, CO in May. Becky Krause, Director of Human Resources for Sage, and I are presenting a session at the conference entitled ROWE for Small Businesses: Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It (GEN24) on Wednesday, May 19th at 8:00am.

Although this conference is only available to Sage partners, I will be posting a recording of our recent Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) webinar to this blog. Everyone is invited to view that recording.

Becky has invited the Sage partners who have registered for this session to comment on this article to encourage the sharing of ideas, opinions and questions about ROWE. Our goal is to make the session a collaborative one and to make sure we cover the topics of the most interest to the group. Here is the abstract from the Insights website:

Learn why works sucks for you and your employees and how to fix it. Just ROWE! Creating a Results-Only Work Environment frees your workforce from traditional corporate shackles to focus on and deliver strong business results. Attend this session to learn how to transform your culture from one that measures contribution by the number of hours worked to one that measures performance by the business results achieved. Do you know ROWE? Attend this session to understand why the ROI for your business cannot be ignored.

Since this session is an interactive one, we are encouraging dialog about why and how ROWE is the future for all knowledge workers. We will also talk about the concept that knowledge workers are volunteers. Meaning that all of us “employ” volunteers.

In order to prepare for this session, we recommend that you read Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. If you would like to learn more about the concept of the knowledge worker, we recommend that you read The Firm of The Future by Ron Baker. And attend Ed Kless’ Insights sessions on Wednesday, May 19th from 1:30pm to 5:30pm (GEN52)

Please let us know what your thoughts, ideas and opinions about ROWE. And if there are some other topics you would like to talk about, please feel free to let us know in the comments section.

 

Sage Announces A Blog

This past Thursday,  Sage unveiled their brand new corporate blog.   The folks at Sage chose me to become one of a select few guest writers for the blog.

My first post entitled “Why Does Work Suck?” explores an idea that has become a fundamental part of our business and personal philosophy.  That idea is a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE).  The basic concept is for businesses to eliminate fixed work schedules, required meetings and rigid vacation/sick/personal policies and to focus on achieving results.

I expect to be a regular contributor to the Sage blog with as many as one post per month aimed at educating  some two million global Sage customers and prospects about a host of business and technology topics.  Some of my upcoming topics include:

• How to reduce IT costs and stresses
• How to initiate a project within your company
• What is project management and why is it important?
• Pricing strategies
• How to choose a web designer

If there are any topics you are interested in learning more about, please feel free to make suggestions via a comment.  The topics can be specifically related to Sage and Sage products (such as MAS 90 or MAS 500) or anything related to business and technology.

The Sage blog is part of Sage’s overall social media strategy.  You can follow them on the Sage fan page on Facebook and on SageERP for Twitter.

And if you have not already checked them out, here are links to our blog feed, Facebook fan page and my Twitter page:

 

New Webinar Added – Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It

Join us on April 29th when we will talk about creating a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) and how working in a ROWE can improve your whole outlook on life.

Based on the book by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, creators of ROWE, the webinar will offer insights into how your job could be:

1. No Required Meetings!
2. No Rigid Work Schedules!
3. No Structured Vacation/Sick/Personal Policies!

Ed Kless, Senior Director of Partner Development & Strategy at Sage, will interview John Shaver, President of Aries Technology Group, on the definition of ROWE, how it is being used successfully, how it is benefiting Aries and how it can benefit your company.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/180710952

 

The Aries e-Newsletter: Ramifications

In 2 weeks we will be launching the Aries e-newsletter for all of our current and future customers.  The newsletter will be e-mailed on a monthly basis and will initially contain 3 sections.  Those sections are:

• Tech Talk.  Amy will keep you up to date on all of the Sage, MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, CRM, FAS and Abra news.  You will learn about new features, upcoming new versions, tax table updates and more.  Her section will also include how-to videos on a variety of subjects such as:
  • How to reverse a payroll check in MAS 90
  • How to create a MAS 90 Visual Integrator job
  • How to create an FRx report for MAS 90/200 or MAS 500
  • Using the MAS 90/200 ODBC data source to export data
  • How to import a journal entry into MAS 500
  • How to setup the Abra Link for MAS 90/200
• Ramblings.  John’s thoughts and observations about general business topics for small and medium-sized businesses.  Have you been thinking about social media for your business?  How do you choose a website designer?  How do you effectively manage projects for your business?  Would you like to know why work sucks and how to fix it?  Or maybe you would like to know where to get great barbecue (the noun variety, not the verb).  Or even where to eat on your vacation in Myrtle Beach.
• Webinars.  Adrian will be posting event details for our upcoming monthly webinar series.  A list of webinar subjects can be found here.

We will be adding a fourth section titled Customer Spotlight where we will feature one of our customers every month.  The section will contain an overview of our customer’s business and how Aries has helped them achieve their goals.

You may be wondering why would name our newsletter Ramifications.  Well, the first reason is that it is play on words based on our company name.  In Greek mythology, the constellation Aries represents the ram.  Secondly, the ramifications of a decision regarding a technology project can have dire consequences for your business if you do not have a thorough understand of the issues.  To use a medical analogy, would you want to have triple bypass heart surgery without a doctor giving you an extensive check up?  The same is true of technology projects.  Undertaking one without the proper diagnosis can result in the death of the patient:  your business.

The newsletter is being designed by Chad Barr and his awesome team at CB Software.  Chad’s company is an integral part of our internet marketing strategy including the design of our website.  Keep an eye out for my upcoming blog article about how to choose a great website designer.

Below is a mock up of what the newsletter will look like:

 

Why Work Sucks: Implementing a ROWE at your company

This past week I had the pleasure of co-presenting a session at Sage’s annual partner conference with Ed Kless of Sage.  This year the conference was held at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN which was great for me since Nashville is only a 2.5 hour drive from home.

Ed asked me to talk about a concept that we implemented at Aries about 18 months ago.  It is a concept that has proven to be invaluable to us from a productivity standpoint.

The concept is called ROWE which stands for Results-Only Work Environment.  The basic premise of a ROWE is that you work in an environment that is focused on accomplishing results during the work day instead of focusing on rigid schedules, required meetings and structured vacation/sick/personal policies.

Yes, that means there are no work schedules, no required meetings and no time-off policies when a company adopts a ROWE.

Now, I didn’t create this idea.  It was pioneered by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson at Minneapolis-based electronics retailer Best Buy.  They documented this incredible transformation in their book “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.”  I highly recommend both the book and their blog (www.caliandjody.com/blog).

I strongly believe that implementing a ROWE is one of the primary reasons, if not the primary reason, that Best Buy is still in business and Circuit City is not.  The last time I checked, Best Buy stock was valued around $38 per share and Circuit City was around $.022.

All 4,000 Best Buy corporate employees are currently working in a ROWE.  Their productivity has dramatically increased and their employee turnover rates have dramatically decreased.  Talk about adding dollars straight to the bottom line.

For us at Aries, implementing a ROWE has:

• Increased our job satisfaction because now we all work the way that is most comfortable for each one of us.  This translates directly to increased customer satisfaction since it completely redefines the definition of a “good” day at work.
• Created an environment that is very attractive to the most talented people.  Doesn’t everyone want to work at a company where they are in charge of their own lives?
• Believe it or not, a ROWE actually increases the amount of work that we can accomplish.  Personally, I have been able to complete many more projects once I clearly defined my results for a week, a month, a quarter and a year.  That seems like a small and obvious change but it yields huge results.

The most positive experience for any company who decides to implement ROWE is that it forces everyone in the organization from the President to the receptionist to clearly define their results.  Think about it this way, when we were in school we were responsible for setting our own results, for setting our own schedule and for making sure that the results were accomplished.  We grow up and instead of graduating to adult status; we revert to being treated like a child who cannot be expected to accomplish anything without the constant attention of a parent (boss).

When you give someone control over their lives, there is no limit to what your employees and your company can accomplish.

If any of our customers are interested in talking more about ROWE or if they’re ready to take the plunge, I would be more than happy to assist in any way possible.  That’s one more way to put an Aries unlimited support agreement to good use.