Development On A Dime - Mosier Information Services Blog

The downside to social networking, part 1

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00 EST

As many of you know, Tina, my search guru, has been pushing me into the use of Social Media as a tool to increase my exposure on the web as well as increase business. So far, I have to say that I have had some pretty impressive results and I'm just getting started.

One of the things that her and I talked about early on was my absolute need for privacy. Being in the tech field, I have seen a lot of people get "screwed" by their own careless misuse of technology. I am talking about people being fired over things they said in an online forum or sued over the content of a supposedly "privat..

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Today In Tech History Updates on Twitter

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 00:00 EST

Wow it has been a little while since I updated this blog. Seems we are all a little busy scrambling to make the best of the US Economic situation. Fortunately, companies are now trying to do less with more, which is a solution we as web and software developers can definitely help with - and has been keeping us here at Mosier Information Services VERY busy.

So the other day, Tina (my marketing Genius) managed to get me addicted to twitter. Gee thanks. I always thought that one of the ways I manage stay productive is to avoid such services (mainly because I know my personality and what ha..

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If you want to market by email - learn the rules.

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00 EST

You know, I have long suffered from a condition that makes me easily annoyed with people who don't have at least a little respect for my personal e-mail address.

As many of you know, I have been known to buy a house or two in my time for investment purposes. As such, I am a member of a Real Estate Investors Association. During our meetings, new investors who are trying to build up a list of contacts are always asking for cards or passing out email list sign-up forms. I have no prob..

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Take control of your domain - its yours!

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00 EST

Wow. This is one of those blog entries that I really hate to write. The reason I hate writing it is that it is very real situation that happens probably a lot more than even I think. What warrants it as this weeks topic of a rant is that a friend and client of mine is going through it as we speak.

I am sure you heard of the “bargain” companies that offer a “free domain name” with their hosting services. The catch is that when you try to leave, you find that you never really owned your domain at all and you can’t take it with you. This little trick has been around for a while now, and ..

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Lets Talk About Listening

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 8 Jan 2008 00:00 EST

I write about this a lot - and rightfully so - I believe it is one of the most fundamental things that a business can do to increase sales, customer satisfaction, ROI, TCO, IRR or whatever acronym or metric you want to use. Why do I believe this? Because I have proven it.

The topic: LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!

Your customers will tell you what they want - but most of the time they won't make you listen to them. One of the things that I always try to help my clients do is find ways to measure the wants and needs of their customers. Not just the customers you like and maybe have a chumm..

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Mosier Information Services In The News

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 00:00 EST

The Ledger, our local paper here in Lakeland did a series of articles on Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization for today's edition of its Polk County Business Journal. I got a call from one of their writers, Lorrie Walker and decided to volunteer myself as well as Tina, my search engine guru, to give her a brief interview. We answered all of her questions and to our surprise, we were mentioned in not one or two, but three articles!

I don't usually get much local press so I thought that I would go ahead and post some links to the articles so you could take a look in case you do..

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New year, New Site, New Opportunities..

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00 EST

Well here we have it. I think that quite possibly for the first time in history I am actually going to make good on a new years resolution before new years day.

If you haven't checked out the web site today, you might want to take a quick peek. It's changed.

A lot.

I have been in need of cleaning some things up, removing services that I no longer offer, etc, and kept putting it off under the notion that client projects had to take priority.

As you know the old saying, carpe diem, I took the opportunity while most of my clients were off..

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Merry Christmas To Everyone

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00 EST

Just a quick and easy note to say Merry Christmas.

I hope that everyone reading this is having a wonderful day! If you don't celebrate Christmas then please replace the word Christmas with whatever your December holiday is called and I truly hope it is your happiest and most joyful one yet!

(PS - Stay tuned to this channel, I have a feeling you're going to see some big changes to MosierData.com somewhere around the first!)..

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How important is your job?

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00 EST

I read a story the other day that as usual, inspired some ideas for this blog post. I don't mean this as a totally shameless plug, but one of the things that makes my company so unique is that we have a very balanced view of the solutions that we implement.

What I mean by "balanced view" is that we always look at the problem or business need and build the solution, not just to fix the problem or address the need, but to seamlessly "flow" into the other activities of the business. I know, it sounds like a lot of marketing crap, so let me try to reci..

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Why I hate the term "Consultant"

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00 EST

Since founding Mosier Information Services, I have gone through a sort of transition. My very first business card listed my title as "President". After a while in business, I had a new logo designed (the one we use today) and took the opportunity to update my title on my business card to "Developer / Consultant" mainly because I felt that was a little more descriptive of my job.

Today, I am again making a change to my title. I have decided to call myself a "solutions architect" instead of consultant. If you're like everyone I have run this by so far, you're probably thinking to yourself..

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How would you answer this question?

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 4 Dec 2007 00:00 EST

If you're among the group of small business owners that have a pulse, you've either put up a web site or thought about it. Lets assume, for the purpose of this blog entry, that you do have a web site. I want to ask a challenging question: Are you happy with what it does for you?

The initial response I usually get to that question when I ask it in person is, "What do you mean 'what it does for me'? It's just a website." Sometimes people will tell me that they're getting however many hits a day or month and others still will tell me how proud they are of the job their brother/sister/cous..

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What is innovation?

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00 EST

Innovation means doing what your competition does - only better.

When a lot of people think of innovation, they think of people like Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb, or the Wright brothers who first flew an airplane, or Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone.

These are all great inventions, but when I think of innovation, I think of people like Henry Ford. Henry didn't invent anything. What he did is simply put a system in place to improve the way it was being done.

Technology, especially in today's business climate of the internet, plays a key role in innovation. No, ..

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Never Say Never

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00 EST

I met with an old co-worker for lunch the other day. I won't say his name out of respect but if he's reading this he'll know who he is. The long and short of the discussion came down to my new "strategy" as a solution architect and he integration of information systems strategy and technology into the nuts-and-bolts of the business.

He told me I was nuts. He said people don't want the kind of advice I am offering. They hate change. This idea would never work. He offered so many reasons why I should stick to just being a programming and IT services firm that simply does what they are t..

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Making yourself the easiest company to do business with

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:00 EST

OK, so I am back on my soapbox about how customer service and technology are interdependent. Indulge me for just a couple of minutes. I will make this blog entry short, I promise.

Those of you that know me know that I do a lot of reading. For some strange reason, even though I decided against college in my youth, I have never been able to turn off the learning switch in my brain. My library is filled with 99% non-fiction - a good portion of which are biographies and business profiles.

I read a story today that sums up my entire sermon on how taking care of the customer, through the u..

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Business Secrets from the Real Estate Market

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 6 Nov 2007 00:00 EST

To most of you that know me personally , you know that I have been involved, at some level, with Real Estate investing for the past few years. While I don't see Real Estate ever replacing what I do as my primary business interest, it has opened my eyes to spotting innovative strategies that I can use and recommend to clients that I probably would have never noticed if I hadn't been exposed to Real Estate.

One of those is creativity in doing business. For instance, as a Real Estate investor in today's market with a house you want to sell, you're facing a tough market. Unless, of course yo..

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Internal technology matters too

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00 EST

I do a lot of client interviews for various reasons. Historically, it's been to brainstorm with the client on their web strategy or design a custom database solution. More and more now, I find I'm being called in to help determine an overall information system strategy.

One of the first things that I always look for are the jobs everyone seems to complain about. In most companies, especially the smaller companies that tend to be my clients, I often find that these "ugly" tasks aren't needed at all. In fact, most of the time, they are only there in the first place because that's the way ..

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Is your business information rich?

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00 EST

I am seeing some really neat changes in our business climate. Mom and pop operations are going global selling niche products online. Voice and data are converging and are making the management of communications almost as easy as the management of information. It's exciting and scary at the same time?

Why is it scary? While as a technology consultant I rarely advocate being out there on the bleeding edge, I firmly believe that you should keep up with standards. Now let's drop the technology part and just leave consultant for a minute.

The way we all do business is evolving - not too..

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Defining "Information Systems"

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00 EST

Most of the time when people think of information systems and online commerce they think of either back-end services or a web site that sells things. One of the things that many people are surprised to find is that these items barely even scratch the surface.

If you know me or have spent any time reading this blog, you will know that I am a strong advocate of an information-centric business strategy. I firmly believe that a strong information strategy is one of the single most important pieces in making your business successful.

I also talk a lot - an awful lot - about customer servi..

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Ability is not easy

jim@mosierdata.com (Jim Mosier) — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 00:00 EST

Just a short entry to share something funny that happened to me today. I got a taste of my own medicine.

If you have been reading this for any length of time, you know that I always talk about how much better it is to hire an expert to help with your information systems strategy. My big argument is usually that many people don't realize that the value in what I do. It definitely isn't a commodity, and while raw talent has a little to do with it, my real strength is a combination of loving what I do, a lot practice and the embarrassment of a few failures along the way to give me solid exp..

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