Using Google Earth in the Insurance and Construction Industries

Today's Wall Street Journal had an article describing how some small businesses use Google Earth to locate new customers and even do some preliminary work on new jobs. A roofer mentioned in the article uses Google Earth to look at a potential job and even uses a measuring feature to take measurements and prepare an initial estimate before he goes to the site.

Here is a view from Google Earth with a measurement of part of the house's roofline.

As the article explains there are limitations to this (many images are a few years old, resolution is poor on some images). The companies in the article do not use this in place of on-site measurements. This does, though, provide a free alternative to traveling a long distance only to discover that a job is too big, too small, or too difficult for the contractor to accept.

One obvious application to Alacrity is in our roofing program, however, this tool or others like it could be useful in future applications as well. If anybody is aware of Alacrity contractors using these techniques, please let me know.

We All Market and We All Sell

Employees in business settings frequently focus on their own particular job and lose sight of the impact they have on our organization and customers. We often tend to think only of our work in terms of individual tasks and their completion.

The reality is that we have many opportunities every day to market and sell our company to our internal and external customers in a very positive way. It is helpful to think about your interactions with others in terms of “How do I make this company work well for the individual I’m dealing with”. It requires a mindset of ensuring that the person you are dealing with gets their individual issue resolved or making sure that you facilitate a resolution by finding the correct person for them in order to solve a problem.

Dealing with others in this manner places you in a position to positively market and sell our company whether you are dealing with an internal or external customer. At the end of the day most of our interactions have something to do with our insured homeowners or with our partner insurance companies. To the extent that we all keep focused on positive problem resolutions, we will be viewed not as a commodity in the marketplace but as a valued business asset. Good deeds seldom go unnoticed and consistent application of a resolution oriented approach creates an ongoing positive reputation for Alacrity.

Remember each interaction is an opportunity. “We All Market and We All Sell”.

Handy Tips for Samsung Blackjack

Here is a good site for tips/tricks on the Samsung Blackjack.

http://blogs.vertigosoftware.com/jatwood/archive/2007/01/12/Samsung_Blackjack_tips_and_tricks.aspx

Instant Messaging

Today's Wall Street Journal takes a look at the growing popularity of instant messaging as a means of communication at work. According to the Journal, "Instant messaging is invading and changing the workplace. Employees started to sneak instant messaging into the office in the late 1990s, but now more companies are endorsing it. Faster and more casual than email, instant messaging can foster broader collaboration among employees even as it further blurs the boundaries between work and life."
Many of us at Alacrity are in constant communication via MSN Instant Messenger. We collaborate on projects, discuss issues, and just chat about the days events. Instant messaging can build a sense of closeness among people working thousands of miles apart that probably never would have developed through more traditional lines of communication.
The Journal article predicts that instant messaging at work will grow rapidly in popularity: Currently about 1/3 of workers IM at work but one expert believes that it will become the dominant method of communication in the workplace.
Hopefully, everybody at Alacrity is now, or soon will, take advantage of the convenience that IM provides.