Hinutech

I read in yesterday's newspaper that the United States Post Office reported a loss in excess of $2 Billion last year.  As a response to this short-fall, the USPS is considering the standard cut services/increase rates procedures that never work and simply prolong the agony. 

So, how can the Post Office survive?  What can they do to remain relevant?  They need to think in terms of service.  The USPS is service organization that, historically, has done a poor job of providing fast service.  Consider your last trip to the post office.  You immediately think of long lines.  You wish that you didn't have to go, but you have to go.  Therein lies the problem.

The United States Post Office has let themselves become known as the lowest common denominator when it comes to sending packages for the simple reason that their architecture has made it difficult to do so.  UPS and FedEx have done a superior job marketing themselves when it comes to getting things to people in a hurry.  It is much easier to send something through UPS and FedEx because they have built their model around the easy-to-find, always-available, never-closed package drop-off locations.  These locations can be just a box at a Staples store or a fully staffed location.  Either way, it is very easy to send something.

The USPS has traditionally relied on making people go to the post office to have a package weighed -- requiring human interaction and needless long lines.  They are moving to an online shipment model which shows promise, but they have hundreds of years of ingrained poor marketing and consumer habits to comba t.

What would I do if I were running the USPS?  I would follow the LaLa.com model and send pre-paid shipping envelopes to every US household.  These envelopes would have instructions on how to use them.  Postage would be a flat rate for these envelopes -- no guessing about weight, size restrictions, etc.  If you can fit it in the envelope, it'll ship (barring hazardous items, of course).  If you want more envelopes, you could order them online and your postal carrier would deliver them to your house.  If you want pre-paid boxes, same deal.  Customers will pay a little more to ship something as long as it is convenient. 

Don't make them go to the post office for anything -- particularly for the annoyance of weighing something.  I realize that it is a logistics issue, but consumers don't care about that.  They simply want something shipped on-time and in one piece.  The USPS already has an army of workers in the form of postal carriers who are their competitive advantage over UPS and FedEx.  Nothing is more convenient than having mail delivered to your house.

So, my recommendation to the USPS is to raise rates and increase service.  Get people talking about how easy it is to use their services.  Market their strength of history and the quality of their workers.  Take an initial financial hit by sending out envelopes to people who don't need them (they will...).  This is better marketing than any advertising campaign could muster.

Although this is a long-standing policy that we verbally communicate to our customers, I want to drive the point home on my blog.  Below is our official policy in regards to Internet Explorer 6.  I have never been shy about my disdain for this browser, and recently a buddy of mine on Twitter made me aware of a site devoted to ridding the web of this scourge called idroppedie6.com.  It's nice to read the statements of freedom as companies (large and small) free themselves from the shackles of this antiquated browser that does nothing more than increase costs and make the web worse.  I think of the hours spent every day as well-meaning developers try to make their code work with this browser, and I am saddened.  Think of the progress that could be made by these amazingly talented people who are wasting time trying to make their code "work" for this browser. 

Microsoft should force people to upgrade.  Make Internet Explorer stop working.  Make it automatically upgrade to IE7.  Take responsibility for the horrific excuse for a browser that they released in 2001 and make the world a better place by forcing people to upgrade.  Sure, they officially stopped supporting it years ago, but they never took a definitive stand. 

So, in my little way, I'm picking up some of the slack for Microsoft.  If something we do doesn't work for IE6 but works in all other browsers, that's tough.  Upgrade.  It's called tough love...you'll thank me later.

 

Hinutech's Policy on Supported Browsers

We don't support Internet Explorer 6.  Period.  In order to use products and sites designed by Hinutech without any hiccups, Internet Explorer 6 users should upgrade to a newer browser:

Download Internet Explorer 7
Download Firefox
Download Safari

The Internet Explorer 6 browser was released back in 2001.  It's replacement, Internet Explorer 7, was released in 2006.   Modern web browsers such as IE7, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Flock provide much better online experiences and significantly improve the security of their users.

Why Don't We Support IE6?

Frankly, one of our core values is to make the web a better place.  By supporting a browser that is antiquated and disregards standards put forth by the W3C, we are encouraging bad behavior on the part of users.  It also comes down to a matter of cost.  The new economy is fast-moving, and the time and effort needed to support IE6 for a diminishing group of users prevents us from effectively creating innovative solutions for the majority of our customers.

Frankly, there is no reason to support Internet Explorer 6 at this time since there are so many better alternatives available. 

What Browsers Do We Recommend?

Firefox continues to be our favorite browser.  Because of its open source nature, it adheres to web standards.  It is much more light-weight than Internet Explorer and offers a good environment for those who use it.  Whether you use a Mac or Windows, Firefox is a great browser.  We like Safari as well, and since its introduction on the Windows platform in 2008, it offers a worthy alternative to Internet Explorer.  With that said, the majority of visitors use Internet Explorer 7.  Although we have a distaste for IE7 and all of its foibles, we live with it.

I am thrilled to announce that we have completed the first phase of our latest customer's site at http://www.accessdui.com.  This site, created for The Alcohol and Chemical Abuse Council of Southwest Ohio, was created to be an effective and efficient means for The Council to market themselves and the great services that they provide to the Southwestern Ohio region.  

The Council's site was designed to present a clean interface for visitors which allows them to easily learn about The Council's programs and also quickly register for their ACCESS DUI Driver Intervention Program.  The ACCESS DUI registration form collects essential customer information and passes it into the Council's Hinutech-hosted Sugar CRM instance.  The integration with the Customer Relationship Management system will allow The Council to turn the massive amount of data that they collect into insight on how they can better manage their organization.  Having a handle on this data will let them understand the demographics of the people they serve.  Before this system, the packets of information that they receive from their customers have been put in storage -- serving no purpose except to gather dust.  Now this data can be used to learn more about their business while creating a streamlined mechanism for their staff and customers to communicate.

In the coming months, we will be rolling out other phases of this project which will involve creating a customized interface for The Council's Sugar CRM implementation.  But now that Phase 1 has been completed, they are in a position to immediately benefit from this new system.

 

I am thrilled to announce that we have officially gone live with our latest customer's site Low Risk Drinking Guidelines (http://www.lowriskdrinking.com). This site, sponsored by The Alcohol and Chemical Abuse Council of Southwest Ohio, was developed to help people understand how to drink responsibly. Many common drinks are included and help the visitor understand what is a "standard" drink. For example, the Mojito is one of my favorite drinks, and it contains one standard drink. Low Risk Drinking Guidelines incorporates some of the latest technologies on the web. Running on Hinutech's customized version of Wordpress MU 2.7, LowRiskDrinking.com includes inline jQuery which serves the Standard Drink Calculator, dynamically resizes thumbnail images through the utilization of the TimThumb PHP library, has a configurable jQuery-based slideshow on the front page which provides visual interest and offers a prime example of how Wordpress can be utilized as an easy-to-use content management system. This site has been a real treat to work on, as it was built with community and social interaction in mind. Each part of the site encourages people to respond and interact with the content. As they learn more about drinking responsibly, it is our hope that visitors will ask questions on the site and spread the word about this resource with their friends through the social networking and social bookmarking links incorporated into each page.

 

 For those who are following the news about Hamilton's Elder-Beerman store closing, here are some related articles from around the web:

• City Protests Closing of Elder-Beerman (source: Hamilton Journal News)
• Bon Ton "Firm" on Closing Elder-Beerman (source: Hamilton Journal News)
• Bon Ton on Motley Fool's Retail Death Watch (source: Motley Fool)

So, it doesn't look good for the city of Hamilton or Bon Ton. Although this is painful for the city, I am hopeful that it serves as a wake-up call for our leaders. We need to diversify our portfolio and take advantage of our strengths. It hurts to lose Elder-Beerman, but it will hurt even more if we learn nothing from this lesson and continue our downward slide.

Back in December, Wordpress 2.7 was released to much critical acclaim. The new user interface is slick, and there are a ton of feature enhancements which make this Wordpress release one of the most significant in years. We use the multi-user version of Wordpress (WPMU, Wordpress MU, whatever you want to call it) as the platform for a number of our customers. Currently, we are at the latest version, 2.6.5, and it suits our needs very well. The core developers of WPMU are working on the upgrade to 2.7, and other users are beginning to get antsy. They want it now. They want status updates from the development team. They are whining. Here's the deal. You cannot, and must not, rush developers. Developing software is an art, and the process of getting stuff done (and done well) takes time. The worst thing you can do is set a deadline for a developer that is a "stretch goal" just so that a date can be met. Why? Because the developer will take shortcuts to meet the date. Testing will be sacrificed. Coding standards will be ignored. Usability goes out the window. Ultimately, an inferior product is released, and users will then gripe about the bugs, lack of features, etc. The moral of the story is this: don't rush software development. Software is done when it's done. When you put a turkey in the oven, it might cook faster if you double the recommended temperature, but that doesn't mean it will taste good when it's time for dinner.

 

The Hamilton Journal News reported today that the Elder-Beerman store downtown will be closing this spring displacing 75 employees and leaving yet another hole in Hamilton's already-struggling economy.

This is bad news for the city. Over the 5.5. years that I have called Hamilton home, I have seen a city that is going through an identity crisis. Steeped in tradition, most of the locals hold on to a time when Hamilton was a manufacturing powerhouse thanks to its proximity to the Great Miami River. Those days are gone, and Hamilton has failed to reinvent itself.

Hamilton has so much potential to be a great city. We are located on a beautiful river. We have a branch of Miami University. We are 15 minutes from Oxford, and many Miami University faculty call Hamilton home. We have a population of people who are dedicated to this town (the people from whom we purchased our home lived here for 30 years...they moved 2 blocks away because they love the neighborhood so much).

Hamilton could reinvent itself much in the way that Cincinnati's Northside has. Hamilton could use its diminished property values and vacant buildings to become a destination for artists. With the support of Miami University and The Fitton Center For Creative Arts, Hamilton could embrace musicians, sculptors and painters. We could learn from San Antonio and create a river walk that becomes a destination for people. We could become known as a hub for small businesses (we already have 2 incubators - BizTech and VORA Technology Park) and take advantage of our proximity to Cincinnati and Dayton. We could do so much here, and I am hopeful that the City Council and community leaders can do something to turn Hamilton around. With so many assets, it would be a shame to continue wasting our amazing potential.

The web makes pricing difficult. You can probably find what you want or need for free (or nearly so). If you want to have a web site for your business done on the cheap, there are countless free services. If you want free music, BitTorrent makes that easier than Napster ever did. If you need a web server, portal software, blogging platform, content management system, whatever, just mosey on over to Sourceforge, and you're all set. With all of this free stuff out there, why pay for anything? Why not just figure it out yourself? If you have the tools and resources to do things the right way, you shouldn't pay. But odds are, you don't. With enough time and inclination, you can create your own enterprise-class platform, design your site's user interface and even host your own CRM platform -- for free. Here's the rub -- it isn't free. Whatever time you spend discovering, installing, configuring and supporting costs you money. If you are learning something new and basing your business on that, you're foolish. Find someone who is better than you and pay them to make you better. Pay them to architect the killer system that makes your business better. Pay them for their ability to teach you what you don't know about this "free" software. If you focus on what you're good at (your business, hopefully) and let others focus on what they're good at, efficiency rules the day and everyone wins.

TwiTip has put together a great comparison of Facebook and Twitter. The post highlights the key differences between the platforms and how they can be used for social networking, online marketing and plain old keeping up with friends. The article is definitely worth a read. I use both, and I see Twitter as more of a marketing tool where Facebook is a traditional social network. Twitter's short-burst character limit allows me to keep up with more people while the folks that I follow on Facebook are closer to me. Facebook has more of a familial feel to it while I use Twitter as more of a news feed. I don't use Facebook for marketing purposes, but Twitter is the perfect place for that. So, how do you use Twitter and/or Facebook? Is one more valuable to you than another from a marketing point of view?

Sometimes, you have to take chances.  Sometimes, the best luck comes to those who make their own.  I am working on something radically new for Hinutech which can go one of two ways -- massive success or massive fail.  In the next couple of weeks, I'll make a proper announcement as to what that something is. 

This got me thinking, though, about the nature of running a business.  It is very easy to sit back and rest on your laurels.  It's easier to not take chances which could ultimately be a huge waste of time.  It's easier to think that decisions you made 2 years ago were the right ones...even if the circumstances that surrounded them have changed dramatically.  It's easy to be change averse.

If you don't change or take calculated risks, your business is destined for mediocrity.  The old adage of doing the same thing multiple times and expecting different results applies here.

What have you done recently to mix things up?  Have you recently scared yourself a little?  If you haven't, then, why not?