Technology As Innovator

Tai Tran's Lab: Technology As Innovator

Apart from motivationally writing for the web, I have been invited to universities as a motivational speaker to talk about the IT industry and IT occupations with IT students.

What question do you think is most frequently asked?

What programming languages and tools are currently used in your company?

It is not a surprising one because the same question has been asked much more frequently on technical forums and newsgroup and has caused so much debates on T-tool vs. U-tool and more heatedly, X-language vs. Y-language.

And my answer is

“It is nice that you are preparing the knowledge and skills that you think your potential employers will seek. However, skills and experience in a particular programming language is not the only technical skill employers seek in candidates. They’re also looking into the foundation technical knowledge, such as but not limited to: Object Orientation, Design skills, Software Methodologies, Data Structures and Algorithms, Database Design, Architecture, Computing Theory, that empower your programming skills. You may do programming with, let’s say, Java relatively well in some situations without the above knowledge, but if you are thrown into a more complex project to build a huge product, the risk is high.

One example. You spend two to four years in college polishing your skills in X language that you predict will (still) be hot in a few years when you graduate. When you do graduate and apply for jobs, if they say “Sorry, X is old. We’re needing Y people”, what will you do? Spend the same amount of time learning Y? No, it’s not the way it should work. Foundation knowledge is the root, languages and tools are leaves. Equip yourself with the foundation, and when technology changes (is IT a slow changing area that does not change every 6 month or so?), you can adapt more easily.

When you have mastered the foundation knowledge, and possessed significant experience in using programming languages, which IDE is not a bug big issue.

Besides, about recruitment, technical skills are not the only evaluation criterion. Think about soft skills and attitude too.”

I was thinking about my profession

The number of Business Analysts and System Analysts required in software companies is not that many compared to developers; in some smaller companies with less formal process definition, some developers take the Analyst role. If the need for Analysts were higher, this question could have been asked: “What modeling languages and tools are currently used in your company?”

The answer is simple: Unified Modeling Language. UML itself has been a well-established language for modeling. More of a reason why it has become so popular is due to the promotion of UML by RUP.

But once again, UML is a language. The case is not much different from that of programming languages. Knowing UML is not enough to perform all tasks Analysts do, Business Process Modeling for instance - and a new standardized set of notations named BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) is being proposed.

Underlying UML skills are Modeling skills. Modeling languages are used to present information in a more visual (and structural?) way. You need to know what model or diagram should be used to present what kind of information at what time in what situation to whom.

Model is one kind of information. In order to develop solid Modeling skills, Information Processing skills and Data Analysis skills need to be developed first or in parallel.

With all those skills at hand, you will be able to guess how shapes are categorized and may quickly locate the right notations you need in Modeling tools, no matter if it’s Rational Rose or Visio or Enterprise Architect or so on.

After you have created a good piece of model, you may want to present it to customers or other teams in your project. Presentation skills may help.

Side discussion: Model vs. Diagram

Throughout this article, I have used Models consistently, without mentioning diagrams. The may raise question since “UML diagram” is a very common terminology. The reason is because Analysts produce visualizations which are not diagrams too. Organization charts, map, prototype are just a few to name. ‘Model’ covers all of these, of course including diagrams. Also, one trivia is that the word may remind the fact that information systems actually model the real world.

Conclusion

So to conclude, foundation knowledge is required in any profession. Technology and tools change so quickly, but concepts do not as quickly. Build your internal strength should be the higher priority.

In a fast-food restaurant

Would you like your Burger with Fries and Pepsi? That’ll make a combo and save you 75 cents!

If you have eaten in a fast-food restaurant, you might have experienced this kind of offer. Similar selling can be found in any industry, from recreation to health care, from construction to education.

Did you find the offered made to you useful? Confusing? Annoying? Let’s examine this sale technique, namely Cross-Sell.

Cross-Sell defined

Cross-Sell is a practice of suggesting related products or services to a customer who is considering buying one product.

Why Cross-Sell

• Relatively lower expense and efforts than other marketing methods
• Keep competitors away
• Enhance customer loyalty

A Highly Personalized Customer-Centric Approach

Trust is an Ingredient

Cross-Sell works when the customers already have had a degree of trust in the products or services, either by branding or previous experience.

Convenience is the Essence

Not only sets of relating products, what Cross-Sell truly offers to customer is Convenience. Sales team must always bear in mind that Cross-Sell only works if it can save the time and efforts of customers from selecting what they want and need.

Problem Solving and Satisfaction

First and foremost, the product or service that the customer is considering must solve their problems. Salesman should focus on identifying customer’s problems and show them how the product or service can solve the problems. Only after solving the core problem, talking about additional products and services is beneficial.

The rule of thumb is always talk about how the products/services would benefit the customer, rather than how good such offers are.

Highly Personalized

Although Cross-Sell is systematic, practitioners do not want to apply for all customers. Because Cross-Sell bets at buyer behavior psychologically, it must be highly customized to meet each and every customer it serves.

Effective cross-selling is all about guiding customer through self-discovery of what they need. In some cases, salesman also ‘educates’ customer on what they would want.

Avoid what drive “No thanks”

When the customer haven’t shown explicit trust in the company brand, and is still reluctantly exploring the products, s/he might find Cross-Selling too aggressive.

When it is the customer’s first time using the service, it can be harder.

When the customer is the independent type, s/he might find Cross-Selling annoying.

Salesman must fight against the temptation of pushing to product to focus on the customer’s need.

Don’t strictly follow scripts. In this case, best practice is customization, not the scripts.

Cross-Work

To the customer, the person or team doing Cross-Sell is mostly from Sale department. Inside the company providing the project or service, it’s Cross-Work.

It involves all departments in the company to work together so that each team members would know well all products and services the company has to offer and how the link between them. In this type of inter-teamwork, competition won’t work as effectively as collaboration.

In certain cases, the job of Sale team is easier thanks to Marketing team’s efforts.

IT gets involved: Analysis and Data Mining

Data Analysis

Software can assist in generating enterprise simulations. What-If scenarios can be done on screen. Relationship between products and services is easier to track. Scalability is supported.

Such tracking software can also link to Accounting systems for better information management and forecasting.

Data Mining

Collecting customer information and product information, Data Mining uses sophisticated algorithms, standards and scales to produce

• Personalized profile for each customer based on their preference
• Analysis of buyer behaviors and market
• Prediction of sale and procurement trends

By applying such practice, companies can achieve higher level of Business Intelligence to boost their strategies to which Cross-Sell is merely a part of.

Case Study: Amazon

Imagine the process you go through in using Amazon service.

Firstly when you visit the site, it will show you a list of personalized products that you might be interested in by analyzing your cookies. If you login using your account, it aggressively records your preferences including searches, orders and wish-lists to create a even more personalized list of recommendations.

Next, as you traverse through list of items, it never ceases to give your recommendations, reviews and comparisons.

Then, when you have selected a product, it recommends you to . The related product is shown on the basis of pre-defined analysis.

Besides, apart from presenting products, Amazon gives you additional services like Wish-lists, Checklists, Anniversaries recommendations.

***

As a customer, have you given a “wow!”?

As an entrepreneur, do you think you can do it better than they can?

As a business analyst, how would you create a system to match theirs?

A glance at another sibling: Up-Sell

Up-Sell is a sales technique whereby a salesman attempts to offer the customer with more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons.

Up-Sell shares many characteristics with Cross-Sell, but requires more advanced techniques.

It would be covered in another article.

Reference

John Boe, Cross-Selling Takes Teamwork

Tom Atkinson, Cross-Selling: Serve Well, Then Sell