Archive for the ‘online database’ category

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A Multi-Media Database

January 14th, 2009

Those fortunate enough to have attended CES, MacWorld, and the Affiliate Summit have done a great job sharing their experience with those less fortunate (like myself) who were unable to attend. Luckily for me, many of the attendees were sharing their experience via tagged tweets, videos, podcasts and FlickR photos, so in my own way, I was still able to participate as a virtual attendee.

Technology has made it easy to share photos and videos instantaneously with services like FlickR (over 100,000 search results on CES alone) and YouTube (over 200,000 search results on CES). Now that you are coming down from your technology buzz is a good time to ask yourself, how do you track all of the content you created or received outside of the event? Of course we all have our accounts with iTunes, YouTube, FlickR as well as numerous independent sites which are great for capturing traffic that you wouldn’t have had otherwise. But how are you storing those files today? Probably not on your hard drive, we all know what happens when you stockpile video. What if you could organize all of your photos, podcasts and videos in one centralized place?

To make things easier, I’d recommend uploading all your photos, podcasts and videos in a centralized online database that has flexible field types to handle images and video not to mention a powerful search feature making it easier to find that that one photo or video.  Make sure the online database you select has ample storage for your media library.  And to go even a step further, your databases can be categorized based on event or activity.

How are you keeping track of your growing multi-media library, today and is it working? If not, give me a call at 1.800.673.3302, and I will help get you started.

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Posted in features, online database

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A CPA’s 12 Step Program to Inventory Database Management

December 23rd, 2008

“I am a CPA”. Make that a recovering CPA. As a recovering CPA, I know how easy it can be to suffer from denial. Why change my inventory methods? However, my time at TrackVia has shed light on new ways to improve inventory management with an online database. Although I’m no longer a practicing CPA, I feel I owe it to all those tasked with year-end inventories to provide them with my “12 step program” to a successful year-end inventory.

1. Don’t let your client wait until 12/31 to create inventory lists. I know, easier said than done. No worries, it is easy to upload an excel document to create an online inventory management database in minutes!

2. Include fields in your database for book total, count total, calculated discrepancy, and warehouse location.

3. Restrict access to select fields (i.e. book total) so counters will only have access to edit and view the count total field. You don’t want to influence the count!

4. Create different views by location for all the inventory takers.

5. Print out and distribute views with item, location, and count total to the team. For teams counting in remote locations, email corresponding views to auditors straight from the database.

6. At this point, don’t let temptation take you back to where you were before. It only takes one misstep to get off the wagon!

7. Let the counting begin. Then have data entry clerks enter count totals into the online database. Better yet, have counters input count totals real-time while conducting the inventory via their laptops.

8. As count totals are input into the database, change history notes will record who made updates/when. No more claiming, “I did not count that many.”

9. Create a view that shows all items with a discrepancy amount not equal to zero. All discrepancies will automatically be calculated via the discrepancy calculated field.

10. Determine total discrepancy impact and key locations with inventory discrepancies by viewing database statistics.

11. Re-count as necessary and update records accordingly.

12. Finish your year-end audit in record time, so you too can enjoy New Years!

Admitting there is a better way is the first step. Feel free to give another CPA a call, and see how I can help get your inventory management database up and running.

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Posted in general, online database, use case

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360-Degree Online Database

December 16th, 2008

The year is winding down and it is time to ask yourself how your peers, subordinates and managers view your performance. If you are like most people, you hear the phrase 360-feedback and your head starts spinning. Obviously we could make your head spin even more by writing a post on the broken system that typically comes with the 360 process or telling stories of the poor soul who has to tabulate responses. But we thought it would be a good idea to throw out a few suggestions to make the process easier and less painful for all involved.

For those of you who have somehow skirted the 360-degree review, it is simply a tool to solicit feedback from your subordinates, peers, managers, clients or other interested stakeholders, combined with your own self assessment. A few of the benefits of 360-Degree Feedback:

  • Gives employees a broader perspective as to how they are performing
  • Identifies gaps across the company
  • Makes it easier to implement coaching and training programs

Recession or boom, there is one thing you should never cut costs on and that is the development of your employees. If you feel your company is too cash strapped to launch a 360-degree feedback program or perhaps you don’t have an HR department, consider using an online database and follow these pointers:

1. List each employee and their evaluators in a contacts database
2. Create custom views for each employee with a list of his/her evaluators
3. Create tailored website forms for each position with relevant questions for employees and a self assessment form
4. Distribute the form via an email campaign to the evaluators identified in the employee’s custom view
5. Replies will be automatically populated in your database (at least if you use TrackVia!)
6. Control access to submitted results via user permissions
7. Quickly view database statistics to identify trends by employee and the company overall
8. Continue to track employees’ ongoing development plan and progress

TrackVia’s online database can be a great tool for launching your 360-Degree initiative.  Call us and we can help you get your 360 initiative underway in no time.

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Posted in general, online database, tips & tricks

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Why TrackVia Has a Human Answer The Phone

December 9th, 2008

Is there anything as frustrating as trying to reach a real person when you call a company? I called the support number for my Wi-Fi router last week, and spent about 10 minutes pushing buttons. (Fortunately it wasn’t one of those voice-activated systems, which can make for lots of fun in the airport.) Once the system gave up and told me I could talk to a person was when the real wait started.

Proving that humans will always fight back against machines that get in our way, some websites (i.e. www.gethuman.com) publish “cheat” codes online for the telephone systems of some big companies. Lifehacker recently announced that Fonolo, an online phone tool for getting past all the prompts, is now open for public beta.

You can tell a lot about the company you are dealing with just by the experience you have during the first 60 seconds after dialing their number. If your call is answered by a person, at least during business hours, that’s a really good sign. If that person happens to be located in the company’s offices and is “conversational” rather than transactional, that’s an even better sign. A simple test for this would be to ask the answerer where he/she is, and how the weather there is. If she skips the question and asks how to direct your call, you’re in for a painful experience with the company. If she says she’s in Minneapolis and it’s unusually warm and sunny, you’re likely to enjoy your relationship with the company.

As Seth Godin says in his recent post, you have the choice whether or not to answer the phone. At TrackVia, we’ve made the choice to answer the phone and have a conversation with you.

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Posted in customer support, online database

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