Sage Blog

As mentioned earlier in the week, there is a lovely team of Sage people in London this week for the Business Startup show at Olympia. We had a fantastic day yesterday meeting a wide variety of people and hearing about their own business dreams.

Team Sage at the Business Start-up Show

If you’re thinking about starting your own business or already trading and want business advice and inspiration, then this is the place to be. It’s free to get in so if you can make it along to Olympia today then come along and see on the stand. It’s number 304 but you can’t miss us – especially not with that orange!

There’s been great interest in our free business planning software and free invoicing software and lot’s of people are really benefitting from one-to-one demonstrations – particularly those that have no experience of business software and what it can do to help save you time and money. It’s also really interesting to here about businesses online plans – our Sage Pay experts are here to give advice on trading online and how that links with your business software.

Looking forward to another busy (but foot tiring) day!

Geoff Philips – Head Honcho of Team Sage

On Thursday and Friday this week (26-27 November), we’ll be at the Business Startup show at Olympia in London. This event gets bigger and better every year and is one of the best opportunities for anyone from pre-start up through to established young businesses to find out more about what’s out there to support small businesses in the UK.

We’ll have people there to talk about anything to do with running your business – from planning and finances to people and customers. You can also find out more about our free business start-up software, our invoicing software and business planning software, as well as get demonstrations of a number of our other products.

Our main stand is 304 but you will also find us at 104 where we’ll be doing a bit of filming to find out what you think about business – our 30 second business manager videos are also a great way to promote your business as the best ones will feature on www.startuptube.co.uk and www.sagehello.co.uk

Some of you may have read that the battle between Microsoft’s search engine Bing and Google is hotting up. It’s been reported today that Microsoft are trying to partner with major news providers like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in an attempt to get exclusive access to news content. The idea is simple; news providers who partner with Microsoft would be encouraged to de-list their content from all search engines except Bing.

It’s worth noting that these reports are very much unconfirmed at the time of writing.

Why should we care?

Searches for news constitute a massive proportion of all search engine activity. If you look at Google’s Insights For Search tool, you can see that there’s been a massive increase in web search interest in the category News and Current Events over the last few years. Therefore any moves to get major news providers to delist from Google could, in theory, put a large dint into Google’s traffic, and therefore its market share.

What does this mean for business?

In the short-term, not a lot. Google is still far and away the dominant force in search in the UK, with Hitwise stating their market share was 90.39% in December 2008; so I certainly wouldn’t recommend moving your search engine campaigns away from Google. However, I would always encourage that any business should spread their search engine marketing campaigns across as many search engines as possible.

Here at Sage, we get traffic from a wide range of search engines, which in the last month included Yahoo, AOL, Ask, Altavista and the Chinese language search engine Baidu. Admittedly Google drove much of this traffic, but in the world of digital marketing, every click counts.

The long term

Given the ever-changing landscape of search, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on developments. Remember that Google AdWords only came into existence in 2003, turning the world of digital advertising on its head. Who’s to say that there won’t be anymore seismic changes over the next few years?

In the meantime, here at Sage we’ll keep our ears to the ground and let you know about any major developments.

Ewan McIntyre is Sage (UK) Limited’s Digital Implementation Manager

Day release to London

Well, it was an exciting start to the week yesterday for a few of us from Sage in Newcastle, as we took a trip to London to attend The Pitch Grand Final 2009. Organised by Sift Media and the brain child of Dan Martin, it’s been a search to find the UK’s most exciting and innovative small companies.

So, who are the most exciting small companies?

The final of The Pitch

Businesses that were successful in 6 regional heats were given the opportunity to ‘Pitch’ their business to a well known panel including Apprentice winner Tim Campbell and self made millionaire Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers. After an excellent pitch, the overall winner and congratulations went to Anthony Lau of Cyclehoop who walked away with a prize of £50,000 worth of business goods and services. His Cyclehoop is a simple but highly effective invention that has opened up a potentially huge market in the UK alone.

The wider effect

Although the day was ultimately to find a winner, I was just as impressed by everyone that attended and the fact that great events like this are around for us all to support the start up community who will ultimately shape the future of UK businesses. We were demonstrating our free Sage Planning for Business and our simple accountancy software Sage Invoicing but in all honesty we got as much out of just hearing about what people were doing and planning – an inspiration to us all and great customer interaction!

Inspiration for us all

So on a day full of inspiring stories all round it was fantastic to see such enthusiasm out there from businesses ready and willing to start off on a new business journey… especially given the current effects of a recession. Ultimately it’s people, enthusiasm and support like this that will help to move us out of recession.

 So, who do you think are the UK’s most exciting small companies?

Written by Geoff Phillips, Marketing Manager

A musical heritage

Here at Sage we have a strong heritage of supporting great music. We’re proud to be one of the founding patrons of the Sage Gateshead, one of the UK’s most prestigious venues, which is currently celebrating its fifth birthday.

Ewan, without his headphones in (a rarity)

My friends and colleagues will agree that I’m something of a music obsessive. When I’m not working on our websites I write for a North East music magazine called Narc which showcases some of the most innovative music nationally and internationally. I’ve been lucky enough over the years to interview some of the acts who I love, including Spiritualized, Mercury Rev and Richard Hawley. I’ve also reviewed hundreds of great gigs and CDs, which means that I’ve been exposed to lots and lots of music.

Musically insipired business software

I find music is one of my key inspirations to help me think and focus on my work at Sage. I know that some people find it difficult to focus with music on, but I’m the exact opposite. Mind you, it needs to be the right music, and over the years I’ve learnt to differentiate between the music that inspires me and the music that I find distracting. That’s why online services like Spotify are great. They allow you to build up a collection of songs that are just right to keep you inspired and focussed.

Check out my spotify playlist 

Ewan's spotify list

I think it’s fair to say that my taste in music may not be to everyone’s liking, so why don’t you pull together your own playlist and share it with us?

Happy listening!

Check out my playlist at Music to work by.

Written by Ewan McIntyre, Sage Digital Implementation Manager

In my role at Sage as a Technical Support Advisor I talk with customers on a daily basis; if you’ve got SageCover and have ever called for support maybe I’ve even taken your call!  Whether I’m talking to the MD of a large company or to a sole trader they all have one thing in common, they are all people. 

Andrew Redhead, Technical Support Advisor

I find the one to one communication of my phone based role to be the most satisfying thing as it allows me to really get to know the customer.  I have over the years really enjoyed the way calls have naturally flowed while working through calls.  If there is a section of the call that allows it I often have a conversation around how their business is doing, the challenges they face and what their interests.  I have heard about the good and bad parts of their life, we have laughed but thankfully never cried. 

The feeling of working through a problem with a customer to find out what has happened, and then giving a solution that the customer is happy with really makes me feel valued.  I also have the power to change someone’s day for the better. 

If a customer has been trying to solve a problem for hours before they ring us taking the time to get them back on track and make sure they know where they went wrong can save them from hours more problems that can be avoided.  

The thing that makes talking with customers interesting though is they are all different.  They have to be treated differently and have different needs.  You can never assume that you can answer the same question twice in the same way and get the same outcome.  This means no two calls are the same and there is always a new challenge just around the corner.

Written by Andrew Redhead, Technical Support Advisor

How many projects are you currently running?

Maybe you’re building a house, setting up a new department or implementing a new network? You may even be developing and rolling out new software like us here at Sage. Some of you may feel you’re not running any. Yet if we stop and look, we’d all be surprised at how many projects are happening in our businesses.

Chris Riding shares his tips for managing projects in business

What makes them unique is that they have a start and a specific end with clear outputs or deliverables. There are lots of different ways to run projects. I personally follow the Prince2 approach as it can be tailored to Sage’s needs easily.

Tips for managing projects in business

At Sage, we follow a few key ideas when starting out on any project:

1) Start simple – Think about the basics.

What do you want to achieve at the end of the project? What needs to be done to get there? A good approach to this is to use mindmapping, or other tools, to help you decide on how you’re going to achieve this and who needs to be involved.

 2) Make sure your output is clearly defined.

If you don’t know what it is you are delivering and how you’re measuring success at the end of a project, you’re not going to know if you achieved what you needed to do. Make sure you’re realistic in what can be achieved and by when.

3) Get the right people doing the right things.

You may be an expert in lots of areas, but you’re not the best at everything. Make sure you use your biggest asset, your people, to do what they’re best at.

4) Don’t get mired in process and documentation.

It is important to be organised, but people are put off by project management when they see it as formal, restrictive or stopping agility. Project Management is just a tool like any other, helping you achieve what you need to do in a controlled environment and in a timely and cost effective way.

There are plenty of good resources available online such as PM Toolbox and Ganthead.com (for IT project managers) that can help you if you want to use a structured approach to your project, all of which can be tailored to suit your needs.

5) Follow through on the project.

Many fail as people start with good intentions, but get distracted by the day job. Make sure when the project does end that you refer back to your original aims and take the time to review what you did.

Project Management should be a cycle of continuous improvement so identify what will need to be done differently next time to make it better. Just as importantly, remember to look at what went well and what should be celebrated.

So, what are your top tips for managing projects in your business?

Written by Chris Riding, Sage Project Manager

One of your most inspirational places!

 

It seems most of you prefer to take your thinking time out of office hours, with mornings, evening and weekends highlighted as key times for creative thinking. Being relaxed is important too, with many of you saying you do your best thinking in the bath, shower or, for a truly luxurious experience, taking a dip in the hot tub. Others prefer a more active approach, walking the dogs, doing a spot of gardening or working out at the gym. A glass of wine seems to loosen up the thinking muscles too.

Away from the phones, the computer screen and the chatter of colleagues, many of you choose to take time out alone, including one person honest enough to admit that the smallest room is where they do their best thinking. Certainly a lack of other distractions seems to focus the mind.

But creative thinking doesn’t have to be an anti-social activity. In fact many of you say you enjoy bouncing ideas around with friends and colleagues. For some simply chatting things through over a cup of coffee or a pint in the pub is the way to develop great ideas. But it’s encouraging to see that thinking time can be part of ‘work time’ too. Many of you say that regular structured meetings in the office or away days are helping you develop plans for the future.

However, wherever and whenever you choose to do your thinking, it’s important not to neglect it. Take some time out from the day-to-day and your next bright business idea could be the one that really makes the difference.

So, where do you get your best business ideas?

Commercial Product Manager Michele McKenna talks about the importance of making your customers feel special.

Sometimes it’s worth just stating the obvious…

Michele McKenna, Sage Commercial Product Manager

Any good marketer knows that one of the secrets to successful marketing, and therefore successful business, starts with ‘knowing your customers’ or in other words starts with great customer insights.  In my view this is THE cornerstone of success yet one of the things that can tend to get forgotten. 

Too often do we focus on what the creative looks like, whether things are in the right tone of voice or not etc… all of which are very important but arguably not as important as sending the right messages, out to the right customers, at the right time…not rocket science but it works! 

Gathering, organising, maintaining and using data to make decisions and to plan a company’s marketing sounds simple enough yet many business fall down on exactly this, either on the quality of the data, the systems they use to organise and maintain the data or being able to extract data in a useful format…meaning their marketing and therefore the return from that marketing (in both revenue and customer experience) will never be as good as it could be. 

Focus on the getting the ‘basics’ right and forming the foundations of success and you will see a return…take it from big names like Boots, Tesco and Nectar to new players in the segmentation/loyalty world like Ladbrokes – this stuff is worth the time and investment.   

We all like feeling like individuals and that we are not just one of the crowd – make your customers feel special – get your customer insights right and use them.

Senior Business Analyst, Gary Ging, is one the many people behind our Sage 50 Payroll and Sage 50 HR software. Here he talks about the role of customer feedback in getting the product right.

Gary Ging enjoying a well earned break

By the time you are reading this our new Payroll and HR 2010 products will have just been released and the R&D team will be all sitting around and relaxing with our feet up. Actually, that won’t be true because as soon as those products are released focus switches to our Payroll Year End project – there’s no time to rest for us…

But I digress, what I wanted to talk about was a couple of new features we’ve put into our 2010 products that I think a lot of people will benefit from.

One area we’ve looked at in our Payroll product is how you deal with the statutory payments for employees, such as sick pay, maternity and paternity pay. In Payroll 2010 it’s now a simple matter of entering one or two dates and the program will immediately tell you whether or not the employee is entitled to a payment, and if so, how much, and more importantly, if they aren’t entitled then why. Our Customer Services team say that processing statutory payments is a common theme on the helpline and they think that the improvements we have made will help a lot of our customers.

One of the many new features in HR 2010 is the ability to record employee holidays as a number of hours, as opposed to days. It’s a simple, straight forward, feature but this was the number one item on our customer wishlist and improves what, I think, is an already great product.

 We really do listen to and appreciate your feedback and suggestions and while there are a lot more great new features in both products please keep on telling us what you want to see in future versions, or, and this is just as important to me, what you don’t like in the current products – just because something is the way it is now doesn’t mean we can’t change it in the future if it means it will make better.