Current Articles | RSS Feed
People love free. Whether it is hot dogs, concerts or software people are big fans of getting good value. Paying zero for something you value is usually a good thing. Consider Google ... it is ubiquitous and is so popular that it has become a verb in the common language. It is a great service, delivered for free to anyone who has access to the internet. It is designed so that the ads are not that invasive and as a result people are not deterred from using it. If you want additional services from Google they offer some that are paid and others that are free. Facebook, Linked In and other very popular web services use a similar business model.
Allow me to share a short anecdote about our experience with offering a free service. We recently launched a managed file transfer service. We allow full use of the very powerful online service called PlanSource FT for free up to certain limits beyond which it is a paid service. If you don’t exceed the limits it can be used for free forever as there are no time limits on the offer. The thinking on our part is to allow people to use it for free to enable them to experience the value it can deliver in helping them be more efficient. If it works well and they like it then we may get a new client for our paid services. Simple deal ... a completely free service within the limits provided ... no commitments ... no hassles.
Within weeks hundreds of people signed up to use the service. One morning we received an email from someone who was angry with us. He thought our tools and the service were great and stated that they would save him a lot of time and money. The problem was he needed to exceed the number of users that were provided for free and for that he would need to pay a nominal amount – less than $100. He was mad at us because instead of using the paid level of the service he had to spend “hours and hours” of his time emailing the documents to distribute them and even with all of that effort some people had trouble receiving them. So ... he thought our services delivered great value to him but that we ought to offer unlimited service for free. Hmmm ...
It appears that this is an example of someone who places no value on their time ... it’s ‘free’ and doesn’t cost anything. He places the same value on his time as he does on our service. I beg to differ and think his time has value and am happy that this experience is very rare as most people seem to feel the way I do about the worth of their time and effort.
In the last few weeks I’ve had several emails extolling the virtues of social media for the construction industry. Despite my many years of involvement in the industry and in particular the years spent introducing new online construction technologies; I have to admit I think it is still too early for it to have much utility as a construction related business activity.
Some of the available options are clearly more useful to a business than others and we are still in the early stages of figuring how they can be of value to our clients and our business. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Linked In are some of the more notable options to connect and share information about you and your business. Our company has videos on YouTube to help people find us and learn more about our products. I get that. I have an active Linked In account and I find it a useful way to stay connected to colleagues, particularly those that I don’t see that often. We also have a corporate page on Linked In, again to help people learn about our company. So, I get that one too. Facebook is more of a mystery at this point. If your business requires a lot of networking then maybe there is value here. Twitter is the high profile option that seems the least likely of all to have any real use for construction related businesses.
I have had a front row seat on the willingness and readiness of construction professionals to use online tools and technology for their businesses for over 12 years. Based on that experience I don’t expect a mad rush in the industry to sign up for Twitter accounts and start tweeting each other. I’d be interested to hear from others if you are using any of these technologies and how they are helping you in your business.
We are nearing the final stages of developing a new secure online technology that is simply the fastest, easiest and most efficient way to share and distribute construction documents.
Do you receive digital files from others? Do you have access to an online planroom or an FTP site? Do you need to then share or exchange those files with other contractors or suppliers? PlanSource FT is designed to be the most efficient possible way for you to do that. It is like an FTP site on steroids. Unlike a typical FTP site where you can only transfer files, PlanSource FT allows users to instantly view, print, download or order paper copies of documents. It is easy to use and requires ZERO training. There is no software to buy or hardware to install. Just sign up online and in minutes you are ready to go.
PlanSource FT is the latest development from one of the construction industry’s most innovative and successful technology companies. Our experience in delivering online planroom technology to over 15,000 users on over 100,000 projects has positioned us with the technology platform and industry knowledge to develop this breakthrough on demand service for the construction industry.
We will be making Version 1.0 of PlanSource FT available early in 2010. If you would like to be one of the first to benefit from using it we have a great offer for a limited number of participants. The first 50 companies who sign up to use this great new software service will receive 6 months of service free. Simply click on this link to sign up. You will be provided with complete details of all fees (which only apply if you continue to use the service after the first 6 months) and of how the service works prior to the launch date. This offer is only available until December 30th 2009 so we encourage you to take advantage of this no cost, no risk offer and be one of the first to start saving time and money.
Here is a new candidate in the cool tools category.
It is yet another example of how internet based applications are changing the way we work. How many times have you wasted hours trying to get a group of people together for a meeting or event? It can be a real challenge figuring out the date that the most possible people are available.
I recently started using a free online service that borders on brilliant for its usefulness and simplicity. It is online polling software that makes scheduling easier. You can find it at www.Doodle.com and it is so simple that you can create and send a poll in about a minute. A business colleague did me a favour and turned me on to it and I am hoping to do the same for you and save you some time and aggravation.