Principle vs. Method

Posted on March 29, 2011 by bcobb

Swift Setup’s principle is ‘Freeing Time’.  That’s it, everything we do is based on that principle.  At first that may not make a lot of sense, but what we’ve done is peeled back the layers of everything we do.  Every service we offer, every technology we’ve developed for business, ‘freeing time’ is at its core.  Most of our clients don’t even consider time saving as a benefit when they first come to us.  They’re looking for a competitive advantage, or a new technology that is going to revolutionize an industry.  They’re thinking money, not time.  But as the technology starts to sink in, as they start to see what they’re truly gaining from the technology, they see more and more that time is being saved.  Once you begin to realize that it is ‘freeing time’ that you are after, that is where the true innovation comes in.  Instead of just trying to give your customers more information, you’re keeping them from contacting you and asking for it.  You start thinking of ways to save your business time, keep the phones from ringing, keep your employees from multi-tasking, the list goes on and on.

‘Freeing Time’ is the Principle, and there are many Methods that we use to accomplish that.  Our method of choice is technology.  We use technology to connect, share, analyze, process, and simplify daily tasks.  One principle could have millions of methods.

I learned the methods before I learned the principle.  I’m sure many of us do that as well.  Its not until we experience the benefit of the method, that we start to see the underlying principle behind it.  Then, the true power comes when we understand the principle, and everything we do is driven by the principle.  Because, knowing the principle gives us the ability to create new and innovative methods.  If we’re driven by principles rather than methods, we can reach our true potential.

Posted in Efficiency, Innovation | Leave a comment

Input – Output Relationship

Posted on March 24, 2011 by bcobb

I’ve been trying to assess when I’m the most productive.  I have been reading the 4-hour work week, by Tim Ferriss, and I recently finished reading about minimizing your inputs.  He claims, greater the input, lesser the output.  Naturally, we assume that the more we take in, the more we can produce.  Because its also true to say, greater the input, greater the number of possible outputs.

Where I’ve missed the mark is creating so many tasks (inputs), I assume I’ll be more productive and be able to get more done.  I work and work and get those tasks done, and I’m thrilled.  I was productive, right?  So I thought.  What I’m seeing is that I have created a 1-to-1 relationship with input and output.  I have created 1 input, and I have a result of 1 output.  So, out of 30 inputs, I have roughly 30 outputs.  So, by having 30 inputs, I could only see 30 outputs.  As opposed to having 1 input, and seeing 100 outputs.  Its a matter of removing the cloud from my mind, to see how many possible outputs my 1 input could create.  From there, I begin to sort through my possible inputs, and pick the inputs that will create the maximum number of outputs.  Instead of 1 input to 1 output, it becomes 1 input to many outputs.

I’m starting to see a universal law to all this.  We created a product called SimClock.  We needed a simple way to track time to clients, projects, and work items.  I kept the number of inputs very small, so that the user logging time would not have to do much.  Creating that constraint has caused us to stretch our minds to see how much information we can create from just 4 simple inputs.  If I create a constraint on the number of inputs, my brain will be forced to maximize my outputs because I’m not switching gears to a new input.  I’m not distracting my brain with the next input, instead I’m lingering on the last input and creating new outputs that would not have been seen before.  After several years, we’re still finding more and more outputs from our 4 simple inputs.

The reason why we have been able to get so many outputs from our 4 inputs, is because the 4 inputs are the basic building blocks to project management.  The important take-away from this, is finding the foundational inputs that will result in the structured outputs that you’re striving for.  It all comes down to quality of inputs, rather than quantity of inputs.

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Utah Business Magazine Article

Posted on March 24, 2011 by bcobb

Several months ago I wrote an article for the Utah Business magazine.  The title was ‘The Other Side of the Web,  Harnessing Its Full Potential’.   My goal was to open the eyes of business owners to the potential they truly have by embracing technology.  Below is the content from that article.

Do you still believe the web is only used for communicating, marketing, and selling?  Would you like to find out what more the web can do for you? Harnessing the full potential of the web is available to those that want it.  It does not require a complete shake up of your business to have the web start working for you.  Focusing on the small but critical aspects of your business will minimize the cost of getting started.  Your entrepreneur spirit will be reawakened with the tools you now have at your disposal.

1. Business Innovation – The web can allow your business to innovate quickly and affordably.  Through the web you can automate manual processes, connect with your clients and customers in new ways, and give business decision makers a real-time view of their company’s health.  Innovation starts with changes behind the scenes.  Take an introspective look at your business.  Look where you or your employees spend your time.  Ask yourself, ‘Can technology automate this?’  This is usually where the fledgling change terminates because you realize the following:  ‘I don’t know what kind of technology is out there.  This is how it’s always been done, I doubt it could be done better.  What is technology exactly?’If you stop there, innovation will never come.  There are two things you can do to keep moving: research the technology or bring in a technology expert for a free, quick, and painless discussion.  The expert is only there to enlighten you on how to use the web to reach your innovation goals.  A technology expert can integrate the web with applications that you’ve already invested in, or help you build your own application.  The cost of building custom can be cheaper and will be tailored to your exact needs without the complexity we see in many of the ‘one-size fits all’ applications.

2.  Competitive Advantage – Being proactive forces your competition to be reactive, good for you bad for them. You can unravel your competition by proactively running your business more efficiently. To be proactive you need to know the real-time pulse of your company, which comes through analyzing real-time data.  The web is perfect for gathering real-time data.  It takes in data from an innumerable number of sources, stores it, and analyzes it.  What is the source of that data?  It should be your day-to-day operations.  Any device that connects to the web can be a data source; computers, phones, tablets, etc.

3.   Partner Integration – The web was designed to send information at the speed of light.  Businesses have started to share their data with their partners and clients through the web.  As you integrate technology you will find opportunities to expand and grow your business.  Those opportunities come through integrating with others which allow you to expand your offerings to your customers and clients.   These partnerships can be low-risk, low-cost ventures if you handle them correctly.By integrating with other businesses through the web, you can remove tedious manual tasks and see things in real-time.  It is through the web that you connect to social sites, ecommerce gateways, business services, data feeds, etc.  These integrations add to your day-to-day source of real-time data.  There comes a time when you require others to connect to you.  Connections to other businesses can be time consuming, so it is important that you enter this space well prepared.  The key is to build a clean, universal interface that your partners can easily integrate with.  This allows you to become a powerful influence, where others depend on your business to run theirs.

4.   Ideas come to life through technology – We’ve all had the experience where we see something and say, ‘Hey, I had that idea years ago.’  We see others executing on thoughts we never acted on.  The lifespan of an innovative idea is extremely short.  A large reward could be waiting for the one that first implements a great idea.The idea could simply be a better way to handle a business process or the next big online destination.  Whatever your ideas may be, don’t let your lack of web technology cause you to be left behind.

Posted in Cloud, Innovation, Software | Leave a comment

Introducing Ben Cobb – President & Founder of Swift Setup, Inc.

Posted on March 23, 2011 by bcobb

Hello, I’m Ben Cobb, president and founder of Swift Setup, Inc.  I’ve decided to jump on the blog bandwagon.  Blogging is definitely something that I have considered for a long time, but have never felt a need to do.  Swift Setup has lived in obscurity for long enough, and I feel it is time I break out of my shell and share the things I have learned in the last decade.

I’m a software engineer at heart.  The first program I ever wrote was on a TI calculator when I was in high school.  I loved the thrill of telling the calculator what to do, and having it obey my every word.  I then played around with a little basic programming.  I only wrote applications that would make my life easier for my math and science classes.  I built applications that would solve complex problems, using it to check my work, but mostly to get my homework done in record speed.  Thus began my relationship with technology and using it to minimize the amount of grunt work I had to endure.

I was an early adherent to Microsoft web technologies.  I started with ASP, then moved into the .NET Framework.  I loved C# due to my experience with Java and C++.  I didn’t like the ASP.NET webforms, but I suffered through quite a few implementations using that technology.  After several years, ASP.NET MVC came out, and I fell in love with the freedom it gave me with the UI.  As most software engineers progress in their careers, they realize the need for code patterns, practices, and standards.  I realized this need as I started building enterprise level applications that required a team of developers.  I also realize that any given pattern does not work in all situations.  Software architects are needed to tweak certain patterns to best fit the goals of the application that is to be built.  Building an application from the ground up is very exciting, and I have done that many times.  Whether it be for a small application that I use within my business, or large distributed enterprise level applications for my clients, I love the challenge of building an efficient, maintainable application for many  years to come.

Posted in ASP.NET, Software | Leave a comment