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Managing Change is the Only Way

May 2nd, 2013 | Posted by jasmine in Business strategy | Change Management | Technology - (0 Comments)

Grant McCracken, posting for the HBR Blog Network, applied Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’  model of the five stages of grief to adoption of new technology in the post “The Five Stages of Disruption Denial.”  McCracken’s reconsideration of change in the context of technological innovation is a provocative conceptual framework.

He takes Twitter as his case in point, and runs his reactions to it a reworking of Kubler-Ross’ five stages:  Confusion, Repudiation, Shaming, Acceptance and Forgetting. By forgetting, McCracken means how we try to cover our early confusion and repudiation of a new technology and rewrite our personal history as before-the-curve early adopters.

Denying our early confusion does no one any favors:

 “We have to accept that change is the new structural reality of our lives and we have to begin a new set of problem solving routines that can put things right (or righter).

When you first lay eyes on something like Twitter, don’t react emotionally, don’t reject it out of hand. And when you go back to correct those first impressions, don’t conceal the evidence so that it looks like you (we!) were right all along.

Instead, do a careful, thoughtful analysis, for and against the innovation. Write it down, and consult it every time “Twitter” comes up and enter a new, corrected assessment of where the innovation is and where it might end up. Keep doing this until, as in the Twitter case, we find ourselves 6 years down the road and can look back to see what we got right and what we got wrong.”

The digital world is moving so quickly that predicting change or figuring out what the next big thing is going to be is absolutely impossible. Adopting McCracken’s assessment strategy will help keep it all in perspective.

Laura Abrahamsen, May 02, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT, developer of Beyond Search

EMR Called on to Replace Suitcases Full of Medical Records

March 6th, 2013 | Posted by jasmine in Healthcare | Strategy | Technology - (0 Comments)

The move to electronic business documents is supposed to reduce the volume of hard-copy patients records that hospitals and physicians struggle to deal with. In the United Kingdom, that can literally mean a suitcase full of documents.

In an article entitled U.K. Cancer Doctors Atop Lugging Suitcases Of Documents, writer Gary Flood profiled  the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, where doctors travel to different counties to visit and treat patients. The facility maintains racks of at least 100 suitcases for the doctors to use.

Tom Poulter, the facility’s head of information management and technology, told InformationWeek Healthcare that he hopes the suitcases will soon be replaced by a new Electronic Medical Records (EMR) program provided by Kainos, a document management company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The article quotes Poulter:

“The main benefit we see coming out of digitization is accessibility,” he said. “We want information to be easier to access and share by our clinicians for the benefit of our patients.”

The project will require scanning about 20,000 active patient medical note files, a process that is expected to take at least 18 months. An additional step will involve linking the new ERM system to an 11-year-old collection of electronic health records that contains about 750,000 documents.

The challenge that Clatterbridge faces is an example of what healthcare providers will face in the United States as they begin the conversion process called for in this country’s health care reform initiative. It’s also an example of why many providers and managers  are less than enthusiastic about tackling the job.

Ken Toth, March 06, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

 

Making a Betterific Model for Customer Feedback

January 29th, 2013 | Posted by jasmine in business model | Start ups | Technology - (0 Comments)

Where do those slips of paper stuffed in the company suggestion box end up in the digital age? In a new start-up called Betterific, founded by Micha Weinblatt, Brad Cater and Jonathon Schilit.

Seth Fiegerman recently profiled the venture in his article “Betterific is Like Reddit for Customer Feedback” for Mashable’s  The Launchpad feature. Betterific stems from the impulse that consumer suggestions can actually help improve products.  It provides a platform for those suggestions, and like Reddit, allows the crowd to vote thumbs up or down on them.

Right now, it’s operating entirely from the consumer side, but outreach to businesses is the next part of the process.  Embedding  Betterific on their own website will allow businesses to access that feedback while expanding their customer base.

“Beyond that, the Betterific team hopes to build out features that let companies engage with specific users to follow up on their suggestions.  This way, Weinblatt said the Betterific community could serve as a true ‘brain trust’ for companies, which is good for engagement on the site, and perhaps just as importantly, for giving the startup a valuable asset that it could monetize going forward.”

It might be worth checking out and incorporating Betterific into your online feedback strategy.

Laura Abrahamsen, January 29, 2013

If you are interested in gourmet food and spirits, read Gourmet De Ville.

Packing Your Phone with Travel Apps

January 16th, 2013 | Posted by jasmine in Apps | Information sources | Smartphone | Technology - (0 Comments)

Updating the travel apps on your phone should be a semi-annual task, like changing your smoke-alarm batteries, recommends Scott McCartney in his article “To Take the Hassle Out of Traveling, Pack These Apps,” which recently appeared in the online Wall Street Journal.

McCartney divides his favorites by the stages of the journey they’re meant to assist. For shopping and booking travel arrangements, you can’t beat Kayak; but TripAdvisor includes a baggage-fee estimator, and Hipmunk will sort routes by their “agony” factor—how many connections are required, usual delays, long gate distances, etc.

Once you’re in the air, he swears by the expensive ($9.99) FlightTrackPro to deal with the hassles of delays, cancelled flights and rebooking:

“FlightTrack Pro pushes alerts to your phone or tablet, shows a map of your flight with weather and lets you tap into a host of features, such as terminal maps, Seat- 
Guru evaluations and a search function for alternative flights. You can email your flight’s status to someone. FlightTrack will sync with Tripit and find trips to track on calendars.”

PackingPro will help with standard packing lists; Google is his recommended mapping app, and old friends like Yelp and OpenTable will help you find a good meal in a strange city.

Laura Abrahamsen, January 16, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Hlava of Access Innovations Named Woman of Influence

January 14th, 2013 | Posted by jasmine in Business strategy | Entrepreneur | Technology - (0 Comments)

Albuquerque Business First recently announced winners of the company’s esteemed 2013 Women of Influence awards. Over 400 nominees were considered and 32 winners were chosen based on leadership, service, and mentoring other women professionally.

Marjorie M. K. Hlava, founder and chair of Access Innovations, Inc. was one of three winners in the technology category. Hlava founded Access Innovations in 1978, a company which focuses on Internet technology applications and data management. She also holds 21 patent claims for a number of processes including automatic text processing and management.

Hlava stated about the award:

“Throughout my over three decades in the information industry I have worked to encourage other women to go into technical fields and into business for themselves, to help forge new paths in the digital age of knowledge management, and to share what I have learned along the way.  I am honored to be acknowledged among a group of outstanding women throughout our community who are truly moving New Mexico ahead.”

Hlava is making exceptional strides in her industry and is being acknowledged for sharing and teaching others in her field. As her great success is being recognized, but Hlava is encouraging other women to shape similar paths and follow opportunities. We applaud her on this fitting and well-deserved recognition.

Andrea Hayden, January 14, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search