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Offer an experience the internet can’t

CRN From the Coal Face

Retailers bemoan the loss of sales to customers shopping online but there is something they can do about it besides just praying for salvation. Some retailers feel that trying to combat online shopping is like trying to stop a tsunami with an umbrell…

2011

Why the customer is always right, right?

CRN From the Coal Face

Mathew Dickerson talks about how a simple transaction runs dangerously off the rails, all because the merchant doesn’t care about what the customer wants I have to admit I’m on the run from the long arm of the law at the moment. I am on t…

2011

You need to sweat the little things

CRN From the Coal Face

Seemingly little things do count. Returning phone calls from your clients, for instance, can bring a huge return A recent survey that caught my eye recently noted the percentage of phone messages that go unreturned in business. I really don’t k…

2011

Businesses need independent advisors

CRN From the Coal Face

Opinion: No business is too small for regular doses of independent advice. Ten years ago this month, Australia saw its largest corporate collapse when insurer HIH was placed into liquidation with losses of $5.3 billion. It was once considered Austral…

2011

Hang on to your most valuable asset

CRN From the Coal Face

Opinion: Expensive employees also make you money. The Guinness Book of Records says the most played board game in history is Monopoly with more than a billion people having tried their hand at becoming a property tycoon. The history of Monopoly dates…

2011

Raging floodwaters reveal opportunities

CRN From the Coal Face

Opinion: When disaster struck eastern Australia, some companies saw the advantage. “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets,” sounds like a callous quote by the richest man ever to have lived but John Rockefel…

2011

Opinion: How to make big numbers look small

CRN From the Coal Face

The New Zealand Government made a tax increase sound quite harmless When does 2.5 = 20? Only in New Zealand! This has nothing to do with the IQ level of the average Kiwi but with a clever positive advertising campaign mounted by the government in rel…

2010

Article 3

MSP Answers

Lead Article (Self-help topic – STAFF) Every business that I speak with tells me how hard it is to attract and retain great staff. Even terrible staff are incredibly hard to attract and retain in the current employment environment. There are a …

2010

Opinion: A peacock’s tail tells a good story

CRN From the Coal Face

A lesson from the birds – have something to shout about, and shout loudly. The Indian peacock has beautiful blue-green plumage in its train with a series of eyes that look magnificent when the train is fanned open. Many of the brilliant colours…

2010

Why staff stay: it’s not about the money

CRN From the Coal Face

It’s about the boss. I have just returned from some consulting work in South Africa, where there are huge opportunities for IT business growth. The World Cup has delivered incredible infrastructure benefits and smart entrepreneurs are trying to…

2010

Tour de France shows up the technology

CRN From the Coal Face

Tour de France highlights non-traditional opportunities for resellers. The 97th Tour de France has just been decided and Australia’s hopes of victory were broken as quickly as Cadel’s elbow at the beginning of Stage Eight. So many late vi…

2010

Don’t wait to put up your prices

CRN From the Coal Face

Arguing for a price hike is never going to be popular. I copped a hammering in the local media recently after commenting on a council draft management proposal. One particular highlighted item is a proposal to put the price of water up to $1.53 a kil…

2010

Converging on the ridiculous

CRN From the Coal Face

There must be aliens out there providing alternative definitions of our reseller jargon for ordinary people. You may think this article is a work of fiction when you read the next sentence. I was recently at a birthday party for a friend of mine&#823…

2010

From the coalface: The IT profession needs to grow up

CRN From the Coal Face

Doctors, lawyers,and even electricians belong to regulated industries, why not IT? Ineeded my figures done for my business at the end of the last financial year, so I went to a friend who was pretty good with numbers at school. Then I needed to have …

2010

Bill Shock: When big revenue comes at a cost

CRN From the Coal Face

Resellers should look beyond the raw numbers for the bigger picture. It was at a recent telecommunications conference that I first heard the term “bill shock”. This is the greatest example of supplier arrogance that I can remember in rece…

2009

Opinion: Government should provide national IT infrastructure

CRN From the Coal Face

We’re not dense enough to make sense. Australia is big. For those of us who have ever looked past our front door it seems like I’m stating the bleeding obvious. But it is really big. Excluding places such as Antarctica that we control, Au…

2009

Trans-Tasman cousins play hard in software too

CRN From the Coal Face

I don’t like to speak too highly of any group of people that confuses the word “sex” with a number – especially in the middle of what will likely be a seventh consecutive Bledisloe Cup loss – but I can’t help but g…

2009

Opinion:Almost perfect in Vegas

CRN From the Coal Face

After 20 years in this industry and after having attended countless conferences and seminars, I am yet to see the perfect conference agenda. That agenda looks something like this: 5pm: Pre Pre-dinner drinks. 6pm: Pre-dinner drinks. 7pm: Dinner. 9pm: …

2009

Quiz your old ways to see if they’re worth keeping

CRN From the Coal Face

Established processes can seem worthwhile but they may just be rusted-on habits holding you back. Do you sometimes see something and think to yourself “I just don’t get it?” The reporting of Aussie rules football scores is at the to…

2009