Category Archives: Communication

Presentation design refreshed

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The ability to show complex configurations of information has the potential to transform worker productivity and drive. Problems occur, however, when this complexity is not unlocked and unravelled but rather left in a bewildering knot, impenetrable and unintelligible to everyone. Powerpoint presentations can help clarify and guide employees through data that initially appears utterly incomprehensible. In fact, when powerpoint design is utilized well it can truly enlighten an audience and prepare them to create sales presentations of their own. In this way, the information taken in can be communicated to clients. A chain-like system of learning and transmission of knowledge can thus be made possible with Powerpoint. And it is chain-like systems like these that truly benefit companies’ profiles in the long term.

Why is it then that Powerpoint presentations garner such bad press? The reason most frequently lies in a lack of training or an emphasis placed on speed much too early in the day. Employees, especially those who are inexperienced in the profession, or who did not grow up in the era of the internet, need to be given time to properly grasp the potential of Powerpoint. If they were at school in the ‘80s or ‘90s they most probably learnt the basics but since then the software has been greatly developed. Forget outdated shifts from slide to slide where the transition takes place through a dissolve or swirling effect – we have progressed since then. These days it is about making seamless steps from one screen to the next, all the while keeping the audience engaged. In fact sometimes it is not just about using one screen but rather about encouraging viewers to have fluid thought patterns consisting of associative links between image and text. Many screens can be used provided you get your overall point across concisely and check that everybody is in a good position to see.

One of the pragmatic things to decide before you develop your sales presentations is the seating configuration you will construct for your audience. At this stage, it is worthwhile tailoring your seating according to the type of product you are marketing using powerpoint design. If you are in the business of showcasing toys using Powerpoint presentations, it will probably be deemed unbelievably dull and unimaginative to ask your clients to sit as they would in the cinema of a lecture theatre – in rows facing the front. Consider a more creative option.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Presentation Creation & Presentation Training – Your Best Option…

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Powerpoint presentations are here to stay.

Whatever the nature of the business meeting, you’ll find they are almost always accompanied by a slideshow. It’s particularly true of sales presentations, where winning over the audience is absolutely critical. However, Powerpoint is now treated as mandatory, which means that it’s used whether or not it’s helpful – a case of the tail wagging the dog. The problem is that Powerpoint design is frequently fairly shoddy, and serves only to put off your listeners, not win them over to your way of thinking. Thus something that can be a fantastic asset can all too often become a liability. How do you avoid this happening?

People communicate in different ways. There are those who want to convey and receive large amounts of information; they are noticeable by their habit of going into great detail and giving you more data than you typically need. There are those who tend to communicate on a more emotional level, interpreting a situation by the way they feel about it. They tend to be more emotive in their own communication, too, using means that resonate on that level – colourful language, stories and intense descriptions of their feelings. And there are those who are far more instinctive and straightforward. They tend to want to get to the root of a matter and make a decision quickly, and are interested in only the most salient details. Bear in mind that when you are communicating with a group of people, it will likely contain one or more of all of these types. Therefore you need to cater for their needs. Otherwise, you will find that you lose two-thirds of your audience, simply because you’re not communicating in a way that they find easy to engage with.

In terms of Powerpoint presentations, that means you need to tailor your slides as well as your talk. You should make sure you cover all three bases in your Powerpoint design. For your talk, give the information you need, of course. But you should mix it up with illustrations and personal stories. You should also provide a summary for those who want little more. For your slides, you can do the same. Charts and graphs convey large amounts of information. Photographs and pictures appeal to a different part of the audience and will register emotionally, giving them something to remember. For the final group, a brief list of bullet points will give them what they need. Make sure you cater to everyone’s preferences and you’ll find your sales presentations have a higher degree of success.

Visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

Community broadband – for independent learning and personal progress

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Next generation access refers to the higher speeds at which we can connect to the internet, and studies have revealed that 8% of UK households now benefit from a super high speed of connection. But, while this super high speed news may sound brilliantly progressive, we really should be aiming to spread this rate of access beyond just a twelfth of homes. Because if we compare the rate of connection at the highest rate – 30Mbps or higher – with the UK average of 9Mbps, it is easy to see that the improvements in connectivity are far from inclusive. Indeed, it is especially important in a climate of economic austerity that a reliable and fast connection to the internet does not become the preserve of the wealthy: news articles reporting on the higher speeds being accessed in the UK have also taken trouble to note that ‘In the current economic climate, spending an extra £10 a month to get faster broadband is simply not a priority for most households’. And this is certainly true in regions where ICT infrastructure leaves much to be desired. Now is really the time then to look deep into the problem of how Britain can avoid creating a new category of social inequality based on technical computer skills and access to information. Investment in community broadband is happening too slowly.

Philosophers and theorists have been writing recently about how our economy is shifting from an economy of production and consumption to an economy of contribution. Put simply, this means that the future might see fewer global corporations in control of the goods the rest of us rely upon and a greater number of the general population might also be producers and consumers of a wider range of specialised services and goods. Obviously, things might not work out this way but, if we can look forward to greater independence and an end to a rigid top-down economic model, we can be sure that the internet will have a big role to play.

Internet users with next generation access are in a really strong position at the moment: there is so much open source software available in places where ICT infrastructure is established that we can use to educate ourselves, produce artwork, write music, and even develop our own products. However, we must not get too enthusiastic about all of this, at the risk of forgetting about the under-developed countries and even the poorly connected areas of wealthy nations who have an unreliable or non-existent level of internet access. Improving community broadband is an urgent issue.

See http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/

Document processing that’s sure to help your bottom line from Bottomline Technologies

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Whatever your line of business, whether you are in security, science or insurance; whatever the product is that you are creating and selling – the crucial commodities for your business are always time and information. Time and information are the elements which make or break players in the modern world – and maximising your effective utilisation of both is crucial. And the two are necessarily linked – failure to organise time effectively means that you can’t make the most of the information available to you: and poor information management means a potentially catastrophic waste of time. First-class document management and document processing systems are neither luxuries nor extravagances – nothing could be more extravagant than trying to do without them.

And there is no field of economic life for which this applies more acutely than invoice processing. Your invoice processing system is the doorway for all your organisation’s cash – and if your organisation is above a certain size, then it is almost a certainty that you are falling victim to a small but persistent flow of errors, many of them challenging to diagnose, which are costing you time and money. Bottomline Technologies have developed a plethora of invoice processing solutions that can help you plug all the leaks in your accounts department, small and subtle as they might be.

Document management and document processing systems and technologies are key elements in an effective information management strategy. When a department is faced with an overwhelming influx of documents, or needs to send out the same information to many different recipients, automation of the right process and in the right way is crucial. Bottomline Technologies has developed a range of technologies and approaches to make sure that your organisation can get it right when it comes to information management systems.Â

Bottomline offers a mix of ready-to-buy software, and procedures that can be carried out as outsourced processes from Bottomline’s own data centre, to assist your organisation in taking the steps forward in the fields of document processing and management. Often a range of in-house and outsourced solutions are required: after all, for all the sophistication of a given piece of information processing technology, any organisation often needs an outsider’s perspective on their processes to help really make meaningful changes to their procedures; but also, the intimate knowledge of the precise needs and situation of an organisation that only in-house staff can provide will often trump the best efforts of an outside team.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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How document processing can help you

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With the purchase of any new technology there has to be a reason to justify the expenditure and the trouble of training personnel and moving systems. In the case of document management that purpose is efficiency, which has many impacts elsewhere – not least in terms of reputation, as well as your bottom line. Invoice processing, for example, allows you to pay suppliers and clients on time (whilst not overpaying or duplicate paying); whilst this has financial benefits, it is also an important courtesy to those you work with and will do much to strengthen the relationship between you. That, of course, has knock-on impacts for the long-term arrangement between you. Cost is so usually not the sole criterion for changing provider or supplier; poor service is a more common reason. People often don’t mind paying a touch more so long as it’s worth it. Remove that incentive and you can find their loyalty is (rightly) short-lived. document processing can therefore be an important tool in your customer retention, with all that means for other aspects of your business.

The overall idea is simple: all of your physical documents are converted to electronic ones. This is carried out by various means. At the bottom end of the scale a scan-to-pdf may be used. More sophisticated systems use optical character recognition and are capable of turning handwritten notes into files.

These files can then be saved centrally, where they can be accessed by anyone who has the necessary permissions. That means documents cannot be lost or destroyed, and photocopying certain papers is no longer required. It allows you to treat all documents the same – letter or email, paper or virtual invoice. Businesses can often unwittingly employ a two-tier system depending on which medium they are more familiar with; either they will deal with paper first and leave the electronic communications, or vice versa. The danger is that some clients may get left behind this way.

document processing cuts out this hierarchy, and a good document management system will mean that your staff do not have to distinguish between paper and electronic copies. This will be particularly important for your accounts department, since ignoring invoices or being slow to process them is a sure way to upset clients and suppliers. Consequently you should find that invoice processing enables your organisation to run more efficiently – something that those who use you will appreciate.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Next generation access available today

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Although some parts of the country have a strong ICT infrastructure, in others the technology is years behind – which might as well be decades in such an important and fast-moving area. next generation access might be an aspiration for the government, but it is far from the reality across the UK. Some rural areas have little or no broadband access, or rely on old copper cables capable of carrying only a fraction of the information needed for the high-bandwidth use of a modern business, for example. Community broadband is one way that groups of people have been able to do something about this problem, sometimes referred to as the ‘digital divide’.

The areas where the ICT infrastructure is patchy are often called ‘notspots’ – the opposite of the ‘hotspots’ that have a concentration of wifi networks or broadband coverage. If you live in one of these then you are likely to struggle to get online. Although there are some solutions, these can be pricey. Plus, some notspots are dark areas for mobile networks as well as broadband. This means that connecting via a smartphone is a challenge, too.

That can be a real difficulty. Whereas only fifteen years ago internet access was considered unusual, or at least a luxury, now most people could not do without it – not without significant changes to their lifestyles and work practices. We depend on email for swift, easy communication. We access information about goods and services on the web. Work often heavily depends on it. Businesses interface online, orders are placed and bills paid. Broadband access is a utility, like electricity or water. Not having it is a bad disadvantage and represents a form of inequality.

Community broadband involves getting together with a group of other people in the same situation as you and securing the next generation access that much of the rest of the country has without thinking about it. The group may be a collection of local residents, who require more reliable internet access. Or it could be a cluster of businesses on the same site, who know that their profits would receive a real boost from a 21st century ICT infrastructure. There are organisations who can take account of these needs and address them by installing the architecture needed to bring you up to speed. These initiatives may be subsidised or organised by the government, who recognise the importance of nation-wide coverage.

Please visit http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/

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Document management: the up-to-date way to run an office

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Although paperless offices are the ideal nowadays, the reality is far from happening. A paper-free office should save time and money, bringing efficiencies as documents are accessible and, essentially, indestructible. Unfortunately, if the rest of the world hasn’t caught up to your ideals, you will be forced to use both systems: an awkward combination of old and new. Document processing bridges this gap until everyone is on the same page (electronic or otherwise). It’s a system of turning paper documents into e-versions that can then be used like any other computer file. These can then be stored in a document management system, organising them so that they can be accessed by all of the relevant staff. Similarly, invoice processing streamlines your accounts department, ensuring that you have a computer record of all paper invoices, and that no one gets left behind because they are using old technologies.

The benefits of all this are immense. Where other companies and individuals use e-invoicing, you can send instant and secure requests for payments, and receive your money in the same way – without the need for tiresome and time-consuming paper invoices, which have a habit of getting lost. When customers and suppliers send you invoices by snail mail, they can be converted to electronic form by the software, allowing you to treat them in the same way as e-invoices.
This process is especially useful when it comes to invoicing and payments, since your company stands and falls on its cash-flow and reputation. No one appreciates it when invoices are lost or delayed, and this level of automation eliminates those kinds of problems. Along with other, related software it can also address the problems of incorrect invoices, including duplicates or more fraudulent ones.

However, the use of these technologies goes beyond invoice processing. Document processing is also useful for the day-to-day running of your business, since the efficiencies it brings lead to a smoother operation. document management means that you should never be delayed by a letter or memo sitting on someone’s desk under a pile of paper. Similarly, files can be used simultaneously by any number of people without photocopying. That can transform meetings and business planning and allow your staff to do their jobs more easily and speedily. That has knock-on benefits for productivity. Whilst the truly paperless office is some way off, then, this group of technologies has the ability to bridge the gap, making life a lot easier in the meantime.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Audio visual conferencing improves team work on the web

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It is very common in the professional world these days to communicate with colleagues and business partners via email. Electronic correspondence has the advantage of being quick, low cost and environmentally friendly; vast amounts of paper previously wasted on administration have been drastically reduced in the technological age. Email is also quite obviously advantageous to businesses with overseas clients; the ability to keep in touch with people regardless of the physical remove between them is something we now just take for as read. However, email is now being overtaken by more specialist technologies that not only facilitate all of the above but also restore the human aspect of digitized encounters. Video conferencing, telepresence video conferencing and audio visual conferencing are three variants of such advanced inventions.

Top companies are already investing in audiovisual communications advances because it makes their practice more competitive and gives a signal that they prize design and performance in the products they decide to employ. Effectively, there are few signals that could give a more lasting impression of a business with its finger on the trends than telepresence video conferencing. Above and beyond the way in which email permits two or more people to feel closer to one another, telepresence creates a life-like sense of being in the same room as the person you are meeting with. This is because it uses life-size pictures of individuals that can move in real time as projections. Does this remind you of something from a science fiction film? That’s because it offers us a glimpse of the future where it can be safely predicted that telepresence will spread.

Telepresence, as we have mentioned, is just one exciting new product though. Also hot on the audiovisual telecommunications market is video conferencing that can reduce company costs by up to 60% and audio visual conferencing products that function much like Skype or a web cam and traditional telephone to help workers broadcast messages to large audiences without having to be in the same geographical location. These audio visually-assisted meetings have the added bonus of being easy to reschedule – now that we have flexi-time working hours it makes sense to embrace flexible meetings.

Please visit http://www.edgevision.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.edgevision.co.uk/

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Sales presentations that actually appeal

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It is a common but mistaken preconception that Powerpoint presentations are easy to deliver expertly. Indeed, where sales presentations are concerned in particular, the novice who chooses to use Powerpoint can end up doing more bad than good to his or her commercial prospects. This is because Powerpoint design is an art to be studied; much like painting or drawing it requires the acquisition and refinement of acute visual skills and an imaginative approach to composition. Audiences become easily tired and worse, turned off, by presentations that only exploit the bare minimum degree of potential from a software product that can actually be a real plus point when used expertly.

Businesses that spend a large amount of their time communicating ideas to external clients should, with the above warning in mind, time to invest in adequate training for their recruits. In brief, a member of the team who gives a bad impression of the brand through Powerpoint or who fails to push what in actual fact is a stellar idea will be making a business loss not only in the short run – in terms of immediate sales – but also in terms of the long term acceptance of the future ideas of his or her colleagues.

What needs to be understood is that originality and performance really matter in Powerpoint marketing. In the hyper-industrialised age people are not easily fobbed off by cheap ploys for fast sales of nothing substantial; in an economy that has long been based on debt and trading on nothing concrete, new commercial ideas are unsurprisingly met with scepticism. As such, audiences and panels are looking for products and services offering change, inspiration, perhaps even a feeling of innocence – even if false – to help us forget that almost every aspect of human life has been commodified.

Make effective use of Powerpoint presentations then – they are mere supports for our ingenuity and should enlighten ideas rather than serve them up cold in a font and format we’ve all seen before. sales presentations will benefit manifold from this approach that is only possible if Powerpoint design is well taught.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

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Sales presentation training: a good investment?

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Business proposal writing is all about understanding the needs of the company.  Many professionals think that they can write an effective proposal if they know a lot about the bid, but many people make the mistake of failing to give sufficient consideration to the client’s position.  If this could be the case in your business, you may find that some expert bid support will give your company a real boost.  Similarly, many sales teams approach their presentations in the same way they have for years, and some small changes in their strategy might really have an effect on sales figures.  It can be tricky for teams to rethink their strategies at the drop of a hat, and therefore a little sales presentation training might be exactly what you need.

Business proposal writing can be a stressful business; with hugely lucrative contracts at stake, the content of a business proposal might be the most important thing you write in a year.  If your entire team’s job security is dependent on the outcome of your presentation, it certainly seems worth taking some advice on how to write a bid.  Perhaps the most important element of any bid is clarity, as clients who receive several submissions will have limited time in which to take in many documents.  If you can help them by summarising the content of your document in 2-3 sentences at the outset, your proposal will certainly have a head start.  This enables you to highlight the key strengths of your presentation at the outset, so that the reader knows what to look out for.  Nobody likes having to read a document more than once before they properly understand what the writer is trying to convey, and by inserting a clear summary at the start, you can ensure that your document will not demand this kind of attention.

It is also a very good idea to include visual elements in your presentation as much as possible.  Logos, images, charts and graphs will greatly enhance the appeal of your document and make it much easier for the reader to understand.  Ploughing through pages of written text is not always conducive to engaging the reader and ensuring that they remember your proposal over the many others they have to read.

The best written proposal can fall flat if it is poorly delivered, which is why sales presentation training can be an extremely valuable investment.  If your business proposal writing is streamlined and your presentation style is original and effective, you should have few problems in securing the contracts that will make you the envy of your colleagues. Once start seeing the positive results, you may end up thinking that paying for bid support is priceless.

Please visit http://www.salesengine.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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