The problem this tutorial is trying to solve is the lack of a native Fivetran connector for CockroachDB. My customer has built their analytics pipeline based on Fivetran. Given there is no native integration, their next best guess was to set up a Postgres connector:
CockroachDB is PostgreSQL wire compatible, but it is not correct to assume it is 1:1. Let’s attempt to configure the connector:
Même dans les périodes difficiles, certaines choses demeurent inchangées. La musique est pour beaucoup un exutoire et le moyen de partager des moments uniques. Dans un même temps, la réduction des émissions carbone est une priorité essentielle pour tous, et ce dans le monde entier. Pour répondre à cet enjeu, Coldplay s’associe cette année à SAP afin que sa tournée mondiale « Music Of The Spheres » soit la plus neutre possible en carbone.
Quand la date du concert tant attendue approche, vous vous demandez probablement comment vous comptez vous y rendre. La réponse à cette simple question peut avoir un impact important sur le déroulement de votre soirée, mais elle pourrait avoir un impact encore plus grand sur votre empreinte carbone, et par conséquent sur notre planète et ses habitants.
Croyez-le ou non, les déplacements du public pour aller et revenir d’un concert contribuent largement aux émissions de carbone et s’accumulent à chaque tournée. Tous les fans n’en ont pas conscience mais en les sensibilisant, nous pouvons en responsabiliser des millions.
Coldplay, l’un des groupes de musique les plus célèbres et engagés, s’est fixé une mission pour sa prochaine tournée mondiale : la rendre la plus éco responsable possible. Pour y parvenir, ils souhaitent réduire leur consommation globale mais également avoir davantage recours à des technologies vertes, dans le but de réduire les émissions totales de CO2. Ce projet est aussi le moyen de sensibiliser la communauté de fans à une cause qui concerne tout le monde.
Coldplay souhaite ainsi continuer d’offrir une expérience de concerts unique à ses fans tout en leur donnant la possibilité de s’engager à ses côté. Pour donner vie à ce projet, le groupe avait besoin d’un peu d’aide ; c’est là qu’intervient SAP.
“Grâce à notre technologie et à nos solutions, nous donnons aux organisations du monde entier les moyens de favoriser le développement durable“, a déclaré Christian Klein, PDG et membre du Conseil Exécutif de SAP SE. “Coldplay et SAP partagent un engagement commun et profond pour le développement durable, et nous sommes ravis d’unir nos forces pour rendre leur tournée aussi écologique que possible.”
SAP a collaboré avec Coldplay pour développer et lancer l’application Coldplay Music Of The Spheres World Tour. Cette application combine des expériences interactives et immersives avec des fonctionnalités qui permettent aux fans de prendre des décisions plus respectueuses de l’environnement lors de leurs déplacements. Une fois que les utilisateurs auront téléchargé l’application, ils commenceront leur voyage et exploreront différentes sections qui offrent toutes des moyens uniques de faire partie de l’univers Coldplay tout au long de la tournée.
Les fans peuvent commencer par l’axe durabilité dans la section “Voyage” de l’application. Ils peuvent y visualiser et mieux comprendre en quoi leur mode de déplacement impacte leur empreinte carbone. En choisissant parmi sept modes de transport différents – voiture, taxi, train, transports en commun, vélo, à pied ou en avion – les fans peuvent voir en temps réel l’impact de leurs décisions sur l’environnement. Et pour promouvoir des modes de transports plus durables, l’application offre des récompenses sous forme de codes promo sur la boutique en ligne de Coldplay à tout spectateur qui s’engage à utiliser les transports à faible émission carbone.
L’application comporte également d’autres rubriques :
Pour donner vie à cette expérience d’envergure mondiale, SAP a exploité deux solutions de premier ordre : SAP Business Technology Platform et SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises. Coldplay utilise également SAP Analytics Cloud pour obtenir des informations sur l’empreinte carbone des fans qui voyagent, à partir des données capturées dans l’application, ce qui aidera le groupe à déterminer comment la tournée compense les émissions de carbone calculées.
“Ces dernières années, nous avons cherché à placer le développement durable au cœur de nos tournées et l’application joue un rôle important dans la concrétisation de cette vision et de cet engagement. Nous sommes très fiers de la collaboration avec notre partenaire SAP, qui a créé une application à la fois efficace et attrayante permettant à nos fans de choisir des moyens plus durables pour se rendre à nos concerts“, a déclaré Coldplay.
Les difficultés rencontrées par Coldplay pour gérer les émissions de carbone liées aux déplacements du public ne sont pas propres à l’industrie musicale. Partout dans le monde, les entreprises sont confrontées à la gestion des émissions de carbone qui ne font pas partie de leurs activités ou qui ne sont pas sous leur contrôle direct, autrement dit, les émissions de niveau 3. SAP aide ainsi les entreprises du monde entier à devenir des entreprises durables et intelligentes, en leur fournissant des solutions et des outils numériques pour gérer de manière optimale leurs performances en matière de développement durable, à tous les niveaux de leur activité.
Ce n’est qu’en s’engageant collectivement que nous pourrons commencer à améliorer notre impact sur l’environnement. Avec l’application Music Of The Spheres World Tour, nous sommes heureux de montrer au monde entier que lorsque nous travaillons conjointement, nous pouvons sensibiliser, agir, et surtout changer les choses.
Pour vivre vous-même l’expérience, l’application Music Of The Spheres World Tour de Coldplay est déjà disponible en téléchargement sur iOS et Android.
The post Quand la technologie donne le LA à la tournée eco-friendly de Coldplay appeared first on SAP France News.
In recent years, an increasing number of enterprises began to use data to power decision-making, which yields new demands for data exploration and analytics. As database technologies evolve with each passing day, a variety of online analytical processing (OLAP) engines keep popping up. These OLAP engines have distinctive advantages and are designed to suit varied needs with different tradeoffs, such as data volume, performance, or flexibility.
This article compares two popular open-source engines, Apache Druid, and StarRocks, in several aspects that may interest you the most, including data storage, pre-aggregation, computing network, ease of use, and ease of O&M. It also provides star schema benchmark (SSB) test results to help you understand which scenario favors which more.
If you want to know how well-dressed someone is, look at their shoes. Shoes tell you a lot about a person’s style, activities, and choices. We often choose clothes to deceive people about who we are — we want to be brighter, more successful, more relaxed, more adventurous than we actually are. But, our shoes paint an honest picture and offer endless insights into who the wearer is.
Like shoes, website footers help us see the core of the entity behind the site. A footer is both functional and brand-specific, and it often sets the tone for the entire site.
I’ve heard it argued that there are two types of designer: those who start with the footer and those who don’t. Regardless of how true you hold that statement, it’s undeniable that the footer is one of the most undervalued elements on any site — if you’ve ever run an eye-tracking test, you’ll know how frequently customers scroll straight to the bottom of your page.
Perhaps because it is undervalued and therefore under-designed by designers, the footer has developed some established design patterns: It is a consistent, site-wide catch-all bar; it tends to contain utility links; visually, it acts as a closure to the page information.
Your footer should be consistent, predictable, and, above all, not so small that it’s illegible.
Footers vary depending on the target audience and the goals of the site. What suits one project may not suit another, but there are common elements that you need to have a good reason to exclude.
A logo in your footer is an excellent way to tie the page together and remind users of the site they’re browsing. In addition, it can be a helpful link back to your homepage (for when the user is lost and wants to start over).
If your design warrants it, the logo can be smaller or a variation. Find some way to fit it in, even if you already have your logo in a sticky header — it’s a good baseline for mobile experiences.
Chivi Chivi uses a monogram in place of its primary logo and reserves the main logotype for its footer.
Next Big Thing repeats its logo in the footer in a decorative and engaging way.
Every page on your site should have some form of call to action (CTA) to guide the user through your site, preferably along your sales funnel. In addition to page-specific CTA, include a CTA in your footer.
Because your footer will be identical across multiple pages, the CTA needs to be an action that is relevant to every page (even the terms or privacy statement).
-99 has a nice big ‘Start a Project’ CTA to draw potential clients into a conversation.
The most common footer CTA is a newsletter sign-up, but if you’re running a site with a free trial or a subscription, adding a sign-up form for those services is also beneficial.
The Ocean Agency asks you to donate or sign up to its email list.
In many cases, you don’t need legal notices on your site; too often, published online terms just reiterate the statuary rights the law already grants a user. (The exception is if you’re operating internationally when statuary rights are variable.)
Fontsmith takes the opportunity to let us know its parent company.
If you’re collecting a user’s information, even via analytics, then you need a privacy policy, and the footer is a good catch-all place to link to it — just make sure you also link to it alongside any forms that gather information.
If you’re designing a site for a highly-regulated industry, like pharmaceuticals, or gambling, then a liability disclaimer may be advisable. If your client is certified or holds a professional membership, that should be included in the footer.
H&B Sensors includes an ISO certification in its footer.
Almost everyone includes a copyright notice in their footer, even though a website copyright notice is all but unenforceable.
The real value of these elements is to lend credibility to the company.
There is a tendency among some designers to treat the footer like a mega-menu and list every page on the site. If a user is confused enough by your main menu to need a footer link, dozens of links won’t clarify things for them, but a few carefully selected links can be beneficial.
Shantell Martin uses doormat navigation to help anyone who missed the main navigation.
Generally, sites have two kinds of links: sales and utility. Sales links point at content with a brand voice, like product pages and blog posts. Utility links point at informational content that is fact-based, such as your returns policy or details of your graduate program. Typically, sales links suit primary navigation, and utility links fit footers.
Envoy includes a link to current openings at the company.
Offering users a real-world point of contact has two benefits: your local SEO can be boosted; users feel an increased sense of trust.
Even if they never use them, customers like to see a phone number, opening hours, and even a map to a physical location. These things feel inherently more reliable because we assume that someone, somewhere, has vetted brick-and-mortar businesses.
Cahn Wilson includes a map to make it absolutely clear they have a physical location.
If possible, let users know how long it usually takes you to respond to queries — be honest, better to underpromise and over-deliver than the reverse.
If you’re maintaining social media accounts, then adding them to your footer is a great way to include them on your page without siphoning users off to other sites. (Only link to social media accounts you regularly update.)
Snohetta takes the contact information to the extreme by providing longitude and latitude.
The post 5 Must-Have Elements of a Successful Footer in 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Creating and sending business proposals can be a lot of work. However, if you have the right tools and knowledge, you can quickly create and send high-converting proposals that your clients will love.
This article will explain how to create a fantastic business proposal that looks great and gets signed quickly. Although we’re focussed on design, our tips apply to every industry and type of business.
One of the most common mistakes people make is starting the proposal by talking about themselves.
You might be surprised to know that clients spend the most time on the introduction chapter, so it’s essential to use it right. You need to set the right tone by explaining to your clients how your solution will help them achieve their goals.
They want to hear the benefits and feel assured that you’re the best choice for them. If you start the proposal by talking about your company and the values you believe in, you’ll lose the attention of your clients.
In most cases, the clients have already researched you and know the points you make in your PR releases.
Once you explain your process and the time scales, you can introduce your team and talk about the company. Just make sure it’s short and sweet.
Sending a one-page proposal will only confuse your clients and won’t incentivize them to reach out. The best way to format your proposal is to create six sections.
This should include:
You need to showcase what their future could look like if they work with you, listing all the benefits as well as explaining the next steps. You need to write down what happens if they don’t agree with some parts of the proposal, what will happen when you reach an agreement, how much they have to pay, and more.
Be clear on your follow-up process to speed things up.
If you’re someone who fires up MS Word and hopes for the best, your proposals probably don’t get a lot of traction. That’s because you’re spending too much time reinventing the wheel. The best jumping-off point for your proposal strategy is choosing the right app. It will help you automate and speed up the whole process.
Different solutions suit different people, but some of the features you might want include:
The digital signature option helps you get your proposals signed faster and turns your proposals into legally binding documents. This significantly reduces the agreement time since your clients no longer have to print out your documents, scan them and send them back.
Speed up your payment process by choosing the proposal software that has a payment option that allows clients to pay as soon as they agree to your terms and conditions. It can significantly decrease the time it takes to get paid.
For an even more straightforward sales process, select a proposal tool that has native integrations with your sales CRM and other sales tools.
Proposal analytics can help you in the follow-up process. They show when your proposal was opened, on which device, and how much time the client spent on each of the sections.
The content library lets you save any part of the content (text, pictures, videos, terms and conditions, pricing table) for easier access in the future—no more copy and pasting huge chunks of text.
In order to be able to create any documents with your proposals software, their editor needs to be very easy to use. If the editor requires design experience, look for a better one.
When it comes to the price section, there are two significant things you need to look out for: the name of the section and the format of your price.
Naming your pricing section pricing, expenses, or something along those lines cheapens your proposals and makes it seem like a regular invoice. Try naming the section ROI or Investment. It will evoke positive feelings with your clients because if they think of working with you as an investment, they will know that a return on investment is a part of the deal.
The way you format your prices won’t make or break your deal but can help you speed up the proposal process. Firstly, you need to figure out if you’re going to charge by the hour, based on the value of the project, based on the commission, or something else.
Once you reach a decision, you have to format the prices in an easy-to-understand and short way. Many companies try to upsell their clients at the very start of their business relationship and create proposals with three different packages.
We believe that the way you present your prices should be the same as the way doctors prescribe medicine. You need to be the authority on your prices and tell the client what type of package fits their needs. If you leave it up to your client to pick the right package, it will just lead to confusion, and you’ll have to do the extra work to explain the difference to them.
Web-based business proposals speed up the signing process. If you make your proposals printable, it will lengthen the time your clients take to agree to your terms and sign them. Make sure your proposals are web-based and have a digital signature option.
Another tip is to send your proposal as quickly as possible. As soon as you meet with your client and hear them out, start working on your proposal.
Our last tip is to send your proposal at the beginning of the week. If you send it on a Friday, it will negatively impact the time it takes to get your proposal signed.
Featured image via Pexels.
The post 4 Tips For Getting Design Proposals Signed Faster first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
At its core Snowflake is a data platform. It’s not specifically based on any cloud service which means it can run any of the major cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP). As a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution, it helps organizations consolidate data from different sources into a central repository for analytics purposes to help solve Business Intelligence use cases.
Once data is loaded into Snowflake, data scientists, engineers, and analysts can use business logic to transform and model that data in a way that makes sense for their company. With Snowflake users can easily query data using simple SQL. This information is then used to power reports and dashboards so business stakeholders can make key decisions based on relevant insights.
Few things are more important to a web designer or developer’s chances of success than having the proper workflow. The term “workflow” applies to the set of standardized steps you or your company uses to create, test, and deploy designs or products.
Over the years, as development processes have evolved, so too have the workflows experts use to bring their ideas to life. The MVP workflow, or “Minimum Viable Product” strategy, is one of the most popular options in 2022.
Here’s what you need to know about the MVP workflow and how it differs from some of the other standard workflows developers may be used to.
As mentioned above, the designer/developer workflow is a series of steps used by experts in the web design world to achieve a creative goal. The process includes the steps taken to start a project, evolve it, and finish it. Since software is never developed without tools, the technology you’ll access throughout the development process is also considered in most workflows.
An example of a standard development workflow might look like this:
Now you know what a developer workflow looks like, you can begin to assess the concept of the “MVP” workflow. The term “MVP” stands for Minimum Viable Product.
The idea of “Minimum Viable Product” applies to a range of industries, from education to healthcare and government entities. This term comes from lean start-up practices and focuses heavily on the value of learning and changing during the development process.
When you adapt your workflow to focus on an MVP, you’re essentially adjusting your focus to a point where you can create a stripped-back version of something new – like an app or a website. The MVP is built just with the core features (the minimum), so you can bring the idea to market and test it as quickly as possible.
For instance, if your goal were to create an attractive new website for a client, an MVP would focus on implementing the crucial initial tools, and nothing else. While you may create checkout pages, product pages, and other aspects of the site, you wouldn’t populate it with content or start experimenting with bonus widgets and apps.
So, how does this offer a better alternative to the standard workflow?
Simply put, an MVP workflow is quick, agile, and easy. The idea is you can validate key concepts with speed, fail quickly, and learn just as fast. Rather than having to build an entire app and almost start over from scratch every time you find an error, you can race through the iteration and development process.
MVP workflows are also highly appealing to start-ups and entrepreneurs hoping to validate ideas without a massive amount of upfront investment.
Still confused? The easiest way to understand how an MVP workflow works is to look at an example.
Let’s start with a conceptual example. Say you were building a voice transcription service for businesses. The desired features of this product might include the ability to download transcription, translate them into different languages, and integrate them into AI analytics tools.
However, using the MVP approach, you wouldn’t try to accomplish all of your goals with your software at once. Instead, you’d focus on something simple first – like the ability to download the transcripts. Once you confirm you can do that, you can start a new workflow for the next most important feature for the app.
One excellent example of a company with an MVP approach is Airbnb. The entrepreneurs behind this unicorn company, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, didn’t have a lot of cash to build a business with at first. They had to use their own apartment to validate the idea of creating a website where people could share their available “space” in a home or apartment with the public.
To begin, Airbnb only created a very basic website, published photos of their property, and waited to see the results. After discovering people were genuinely interested in renting another person’s home, the company was able to begin experimenting with new ideas to make a site where people could list their properties for travelers.
There are a lot of benefits to the MVP workflow – particularly when it comes to gaining agility and developing new products quickly. However, there are downsides too.
Pros
Cons
If you believe an MVP workflow might be effective for you, the first step is defining your “Minimum Viable Product.” The app, website, or product you design needs to align with your team’s strategic goals, so think about what your company is trying to achieve at this moment – before you get started. If you have limited resources, or specific purposes, like improving your reputation as a reliable company, now might not be the right time to develop a new MVP.
Ask what purpose your minimum viable product will serve and what kind of market you’re going to be targeting. You’ll need to know your target customer to help you test the quality and performance of each iteration of your MVP. Once you know what your ideal “product” is, ask yourself what the most important features will be.
You can base these decisions on things like:
For example, if you’re producing an AI chatbot that helps companies to sort through customer inquiries, the most important “initial feature” may be the ability to integrate that bot into existing websites and apps owned by the company.
Once you have your hierarchy of most valuable features for your minimum viable product, you can translate this into an action plan for development. Remember, although you’re focusing on the “minimum” in development, your product still needs to be “viable.” In other words, it still needs to allow your customer to achieve a specific goal.
While the MVP workflow approach might not be the right solution for every development or design team, it can work very effectively in the right circumstances. The MVP approach doesn’t minimize the importance of understanding market problems and delivering value. Instead, the focus is on delivering quick value that gradually increases and evolves over time.
As many developers and designers know, the most useful form of product validation in most cases is real-world validation. When your customers have had an opportunity to use a product on a day-to-day basis, they can provide much more effective feedback.
Just keep in mind that committing to the MVP approach also means changing your workflow and committing to iterations – otherwise, other features may never be completed. You’ll need to be willing to work quickly and in small bursts without getting too heavily caught up in one feature or functionality.
Featured image via Pexels.
The post How to Get Started with the MVP Workflow first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Après avoir adopté l’ERP SAP S/4HANA, METEX NØØVISTAGO a souhaité améliorer son processus d’élaboration budgétaire. Une tâche confiée à SAP Analytics Cloud Planning, déployé par le Groupe KPC.
METEX NØØVISTAGO est un acteur industriel à la pointe de la bio-industrie.L’entreprise produit des ingrédients fonctionnels (principalement des acides aminées à ce jour) par fermentation pour le marché de la nutrition animale et bientôt de la cosmétique : 1 usine, 100KT d’acide aminées par an, 200M€ de CA annuel, et 350 salariés.
En juin 2020, METEX NØØVISTAGO a déployé un nouveau système d’information en mode greenfield, comprenant l’ERP intelligent SAP S/4HANA, un data warehouse SAP BW/4HANA et l’outil d’analyse de données SAP Analytics Cloud. « Un changement de taille pour METEX NØØVISTAGO,qui avait travaillé pendant 35 ans sur IBM AS/400 », explique Paul Stoffaes, DSI de l’entreprise.
Reste un processus qui n’avait pas été refondu : la planification budgétaire. « Le processus de forecast était réalisé sur Excel, ce qui était long, laborieux et source de nombreuses erreurs. Le contrôle de gestion passait plus de temps à consolider les données qu’à les analyser. Quant au processus d’élaboration budgétaire, il était encore plus fastidieux ».
METEX NØØVISTAGO a donc décidé de mettre en place une solution capable de livrer des prévisions au mois, à l’année et sur plusieurs années, avec une agilité permettant l’intégration aisée de nouveaux produits ou de nouveaux processus. L’objectif est de libérer du temps au contrôle de gestion, afin qu’il puisse se focaliser sur son cœur de métier, l’analyse et le pilotage.
La société a confié la modélisation de son processus à l’un des modules de SAP Analytics Cloud, le module de Planning. « L’utilisation de SAP Analytics Cloud Planning permet de faciliter l’intégration avec l’ERP SAP S/4HANA, constate Paul Stoffaes. Il y a également une certaine logique à l’utiliser, car nos collaborateurs connaissent déjà SAP Analytics Cloud dans le cadre de la Business Intelligence. »
Le déploiement de la brique Planning de SAP Analytics Cloud a été confié à KPC : « Ils ont bien compris nos enjeux et ont su proposer un déroulé de projet et une méthodologie adaptés, ainsi qu’un chiffrage lisible. Leur capacité à s’engager au forfait sur un planning serré a également été une des raisons du choix de KPC. » METEX NØØVISTAGO avait en effet fixé comme contrainte une réalisation du projet dans un délai restreint de 5 mois.
Le cœur fonctionnel de la solution mise en place est un P&L présenté par produit, accompagné de plusieurs modèles de simulation. Chaque équipe dispose de son propre accès à la solution, afin d’y faire remonter ses données et prévisions : commerciaux, production, achats, logistique… Les informations sont synchronisées chaque jour – dans les deux sens – entre les référentiels SAP S/4HANA, SAP BW/4HANA et SAP Analytics Cloud, au travers de SAP Data Hub.
Voici le détail du processus mis en place :
« De notre point de vue, le projet est une réussite, résume Paul Stoffaes. Il a été mené à bien dans les délais, avec un budget maîtrisé. KPC a su faire preuve d’une solide expertise fonctionnelle et technique. Nous avions séparé le projet sous forme de lots, permettant de dispatcher les livrables tout au long du développement, ce qui s’est avéré très confortable. »
Quels bénéfices a identifié METEX NØØVISTAGO?
Le tout avec comme résultat global une amélioration des prévisions. Mais aussi un bénéfice inattendu : un intérêt renouvelé des collaborateurs pour SAP Analytics Cloud. « L’utilisation de SAP Analytics Cloud Planning a poussé certains utilisateurs à se pencher sur SAP Analytics Cloud BI », confirme Paul Stoffaes. La DSI s’attendait à une adoption rapide de SAP Analytics Cloud Planning par les utilisateurs de SAP Analytics Cloud BI. La fertilisation a finalement aussi été constatée dans l’autre sens !
The post L’industriel METEX NØØVISTAGO s’appuie sur SAP Analytics Cloud Planning pour son élaboration budgétaire appeared first on SAP France News.
There was a point at which I was very close to losing my business, and I didn’t realize how close.
I wasn’t always a good planner, and I didn’t plan to start an agency. One day I was a freelance graphic designer, my job list grew, I hired some help, and suddenly I was managing a team.
There isn’t a guidebook for new business owners, you have to learn on the job, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. We expanded rapidly from two to four people, then seven, and suddenly we hit 16 employees in just 18 months. It was pretty scary and felt like driving on the freeway without brakes. A client shared a story that they were turning over $20m, and the owner was only taking home $30k. It felt like where I was headed. At that point, I could easily have lost it all.
I took a hard look at the numbers and realized that we were barely breaking even, let alone profitable. That needed to change to stabilize the business and regain control of my operations. The change wasn’t easy, and there were some hard lessons, but 11 years later, with a strong local team and 40+ awards for our work, I’m thankful for that wake-up call.
There are other people in my position struggling with the same issues I faced, so I’d like to share the four key things I did that helped turn things around and move us from surviving to thriving.
I wanted to do it all, and as the business owner, it was hard to turn down a new client. Our instincts are to help, and declining opportunities feels wrong. In our industry, digital agencies, especially web design agencies, try to cover all bases from marketing, SEO, adwords, design, photography, and coding. Everyone wants to be a one-stop shop for clients. I used to be that person: I would wash your car and shine your shoes if I could.
Do not give in to that fear.
When you’re a generalist, you spread yourself too thin. I know: a decade ago, we were offering dozens of services outside of the web design realm: packaging, branding, copywriting, sticker design, SEO, hosting, analytics, you name it, we provided it. We used over seven different CMS for our projects. If a client wanted it, we tried to offer it, no matter how unsuitable it was for us.
On the surface, we fulfilled our projects, and our clients were always thrilled with the results. But below the surface, our operations were dissolving into a mess. Our eyes weren’t on the prize; we were always chasing after each little job for cash. It took too much time to learn new skills. When I looked at our timesheets and deducted the unbillable hours, our projects would hardly break even.
What hurt us even further is that with diversifying, we had to manage multiple workflows, software, and systems: Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Google Analytics, Final Cut Pro, etc. It was expensive with minimal return. It was like an Olympic swimmer signing up for a swimming-diving-ice-skating club when their passion is swimming.
So I took a step back. I boiled it down to what we enjoyed and excelled at. Ask yourself: for what do you want to be known? For us, it was psychology-driven, conversion-focused web design. This was the service our team had the most skills in and collectively could give the best value to our clients. Once I’d figured that out, it was easy to eliminate those other services and specialize.
You can niche down by service or industry and be the specialist in what you offer.
The first red flag that my business was in trouble was when I said to my accountant, “I feel like my business is doing great.” He replied, “I don’t care how you feel. The facts are in the numbers. Show me your accounts, and I’ll tell you if you’re actually doing well.” As an intuition-driven guy, it was a real eye-opener; I’d only ever relied on gut instinct.
At one point, we had a ton of work coming in, so I hired a few juniors to help the rest of the team. The team grew to 16, and the vibes in the studio were great, but the numbers weren’t. Instead of increasing efficiency, projects took 40 hours longer than they should have done. Why? The seniors and mid-level designers were taking time out to train the juniors! Reassessing the team showed me I needed to hire experienced staff, so projects ran on time and budget. It was a hard decision but a necessary one to keep us afloat.
The crucial numbers for any design agency are your timesheets, where bottlenecks lie, how much you’re spending, how long a project takes; these determine your actual margins. Setting up quantitative software like Toggl, Gantt, and Asana were a game-changer for us. They gave our project management real purpose and potential. Knowing the average hours our primary type of project took made it easy to give clients realistic deadlines, anticipate the need for fresh hiring, and know when our plates were full. You do not want to bite off more than you can chew.
You can’t please everyone, and frankly, you shouldn’t be trying to. One type of bait won’t attract every kind of fish. First, identify the type of fish you want to catch, the pond where this type of fish lives, and finally, bait your hook with something that type of fish can’t resist.
Your sales team should be able to identify them instantly, and all you then need to do is streamline your team, process, and systems towards being the best fit for them.
There are many different marketing avenues you can go down, but go down too many, and it becomes a tangled web of confused messaging.
Remember, just because your competitors are doing it does not mean it’s the most effective approach for your target market.
There are really only inbound and outbound types of strategies, and it’s a great idea to list out the pros and cons (and the ROI of each) concerning your target market. Or, you can approach marketing based on your existing skillset — for example, if you detest being in front of a camera and don’t want to do video marketing, then just don’t do it.
Identify what works for you, and then be consistent. Consistency is the secret to a successful marketing strategy.
The post How I Saved My Design Agency & Tripled My Profits first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Modern data-driven applications are based on various data sources and complex data stacks that require well-designed frameworks to deliver operational efficiency and business insights. Data pipelines allow organizations to automate information extraction from distributed sources while consolidating data into high-performance storage for centralized access. In this Refcard, we delve into the fundamentals of a data pipeline and the problems it solves for modern enterprises, along with its benefits and challenges.
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