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However, in recent news, one negative aspect of being green has emerged. The United State Postal Service has announced plans to close several post offices in order to reduce their costs. While this decision will save money for USPS, it will also cause an estimated 150,000 in job losses and a number of vacant properties.

This is an example of when trying to do good in one area, it can upset the working conditions of another. The next step is to find a solution that can balance the situation. Clearly a new, more competitive business model for USPS is needed.

What do you think USPS or any public company should do to compete with the private sector? Or do you feel that closing offices and reducing the number of delivery days to Monday through Friday will suffice?

It may be easier and more cost effective than you think to implement technology. An unavoidable enabler to streamline business processes, technology can mean the difference between a success and a failure.

Define your needs and think about your expectations. Remember, success starts with managing requirements. Work with service providers that have a clear understanding of your vision and goals. Make clear requirements and detailed expectations for employees and customers. This can eliminate backtracking and mistakes.

Organize and Streamline your processes. To stay on track, use a system that gives you and your employees clear visibility of all the aspects of your business operations and values.

Communication is also very important and often overlooked. Open and detailed communication is, in turn, crucial for a small business. People can lose time and money because of miscommunication.

Lastly, put your best foot forward. Having a system that creates a strong structure to internal processes and gives you a polished professional image for your customers and potentials.

What are the ways your business can work on itself? To start, when was the last time you updated your public site? Carefully read through your site. You might find that the present content does not truly reflect who your company is today. Perhaps a new design can be brainstormed. Another reevaluation activity is through your current customers. Use the extra time to strengthen your current client relationships by engaging in dialogue with them to better understand what you are doing well or could improve upon. Lastly, what are the latest technology tools out in the market? More and more of today’s business processes entail some form of technology or web use. If your company is still using paper forms to manage your projects, investing in a web-based application might be something to research. It will not only improve your business proficiency but with the slower sales, you as a business owner can really get involved with the development and changes.

In the end, there are a number of reasons why every company should reassess their business model. One is time. When the market was up, most small business owners found themselves too busy to take a step back and look at their operations. Now that market activity has slowed considerably, most businesses have the needed time to carry out this task. Another reason focuses on the long term benefits. The market will pick and the economy will starting moving again so it is imperative that as a business you be prepared to face the leaner, faster, more technologically-inclined marketplace. It’s one thing to survive right now but it will be equally as important to be prepared for surviving what’s ahead.

• Cute PDF - helps you create pdfs from any printable document
• Open Office - provides you with an open source office suite
• Scribus - an open source program for designing a variety of page layouts
• Windows Live Safety Online Scanner - it offers a free service to scan your computer for infections
• Firefox Pencil add-on - Pencil is a Firefox add-on to do GUI prototyping and simple sketching: Really cool!

Is there a program your business uses and has found success with? Anything you would like to add or remove from the list?

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Business and Technology Consulting

Where does the SMG student stand?

Puneet Gangal, Aciron Consulting

As an undergraduate trying to figure out a career path, the consulting industry may not seem like an obvious or even possible choice.  In actuality, it may be a strong fit for many students.  Specifically for School of Management students, an area of interest may be business and technology consulting, which combines business strategy and management expertise with the fast paced, evolving technology field.  

What is business and technology consulting?

In general, the consulting industry provides services to various categories and kinds of businesses, including government agencies, non-profits, and the private sector.  Consulting firms themselves exist in all sizes, areas of expertise, and the types of services offered.  A business and technology consulting firm may be hired by a client for services as wide-ranging as executing a given strategy to providing in-depth analysis of the business.  For example, a firm may design and develop a custom application to help streamline a client’s business processes. Whatever service the firm performs, it typically involves merging existing processes with new technology to provide the client with a solution that is sustainable and will continue to advance and grow their business.

What is it like to work as a consultant?

The major focus of consulting work is identifying problems and finding solutions.  The specific tasks required change with each client and situation. Consultants speak with clients to understand the unique processes of the business and identify where improvements or changes can be implemented.  A consultant must analyze the situation and develop appropriate solutions. Consultants present their recommendations and, depending on the engagement, implement the proposed and accepted strategies.

Innovation is the key aspect that sets great consultants apart from others. With technology, innovation is especially crucial to give businesses a competitive edge and to be able to achieve the optimal business and IT alignment.

What does it take to be a consultant?

A consultant must be able to both analyze and creatively solve problems.  Because the work is always changing, a consultant should be a person who likes new challenges and a dynamic environment. The most important aspect of the job is to be able to understand the client and their needs so it is essential to collaborate and communicate effectively.

How do I get into the industry?

An internship in the consulting industry is a great way to get experience and to learn what a consulting career is like. When looking for an internship, try to find one that will teach and train you in the business. If you can not find internship experience, exploring your interests and developing your skills can always help you in a future career in consulting.

Aciron Consulting is a business and technology consulting firm located in Cambridge, MA.  The firm looks forward to sharing more in depth news and insights about the consulting industry in future issues of this publication.

Since every business is constantly generating data sometimes what’s being gathered is useful and sometimes it’s simply noise. As a result, what a company should do is eliminate the latter and focus on targeting and using the former.

What is thus required is a form of data architecture based on a well thought-out strategy. The architecture must enable data to be captured, secured, and archived. The last being crucial in the event of a data crash. What would be the point of collecting all this information if it suddenly disappears? It’s also a company’s nightmare when such data is suddenly lost. Take Ma.gnolia. Early this year, Ma.gnolia lost all of its data and has yet been able to recover almost three years of information that thousands of loyal users have helped generate.

In the end, there are two things to consider. One, value the data you capture. Value it in the sense of only capture what you need and do not ask your consumers to divulge unnecessary details if all you need for your business is a simple opinion. Secondly, protect your data. Whether for archiving purposes or from the standpoint of customer privacy, data needs to be secure and safe from potential hackers.

If companies are more careful about HOW MUCH they capture, HOW THEY STORE their data (never store passwords in clear text by the way) and HOW TO USE it, data management will not only become an easy task but also become an efficient tool in managing your business.

Paula Jacobs recently discussed what she believed were the top five green IT trends of 2009. Focusing on the areas of accountability, business practices, and a general shift to more virtualization, information technology is becoming more and more relevant in the drive to preserve the environment. IT can be a huge enabler regardless of a business’s size. As noted in the article, UPS’s package/flow software has enabled the company to lessen the number left-hand turns in their day-to-day operations and in turn this has reduced the amount of time, money spent, and general use of fuel.

However, this is just one instance where leveraging technology can help to streamline current operations and increase a business’s efficiency. On a smaller scale, by performing day-to-day tasks on the computer many owners already have powered on all day, one can reduce the use of paper and ink and not create any additional impact to the environment.

In the end, what this article highlights is how once again technology whether as a storage solution or a customized software application can bring about positive changes to a company.