Getting Started without all the Risk

Written by Joel Basa, e-Marketing Manager at Xerox Corporation
In our current business environment, no two days are alike. Think of yesterday? One week ago? One month ago? Are you focusing on the same business priorities for each timeframe? For a successful business, I’m sure the answer is yes AND no. YES to the fact that you’re sticking to your strategy and “staying the course” but NO since you’ve had to adjust some of your resources to look at ways to capture new business opportunities.
Howie Fenton’s Blog Post, “75% of Small Businesses Believe in Cross Media Marketing,” highlights something I’ve been hearing from my collegues and customers alike: the desire to expand services/capabilities but the realization that they need guidance and information on how to best do this.
Implementation challenges come in many forms: resource constraints, infrastructure requirements, technical know-how, business skill gaps, just to name a few. A growing trend in the industry is for businesses to supplement their resources with professional services in specific areas: workflow optimization, color management, business skills and intelligence, implementation of VDP and Trans-Promo.
The addition of these services can help a business quickly come up to speed on areas that will help them reduce their cost and delight their customers. The flexibility of this model helps them get started and lets them build their business by reducing their risk. This model eliminates the need for up-front investment in infrastructure and software before they know how well their customers will receive it.
Looking at your own business, what are the specific areas that you’d like guidance in getting started and help in developing? What services would help you? How are you adjusting your business strategies and resource allocation to address your customer requirements? We’re curious to know.