We wish you a happy and safe holiday season.

Steve, you inspired so many and will continue to. Thank you for the incredible dedication to making all of our lives better through technology and innovation. Most importantly, thank you for instilling and grounding with fact, the importance of details.

I am so sorry you suffered and that your life was cut short. I am just so sorry for your loss of life, you did not deserve to end your incredible journey at such a young age.

With deepest sympathy and incredible admiration,
Linda

Peoria Charter Service Bus

If I get hit by a bus…..

Everyday in my training to those on my team, I would repeat certain sayings that I felt were important to ingrain and teach those that I cared about or those that I felt had what it would take to become a good property manager or overall employee. One of my classics was …If I get his by a bus, the next guy will be able to…….

Well the other day I did get hit by a bus (sic) and it did not hurt, it was actually pleasant! The bus that hit me was not moving but parked in a rest area taking a break. I noticed a huge mural painted on the side that stated ‘surf and ride’, but I knew there were no “waves or surf” around there, so I was my normal, curious self and I interviewed the bus driver to find out what this message was about. What I learned was so very interesting. The twist is that the bus has free wifi for its passengers. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so please view the bus photo in this article, which is a Peoria Charter Bus that travels between Champaign and Chicago, Illinois.

What a fabulous idea! A bus moving down the highway with wifi. How cool is that? I loved it. Of course it got me thinking about how neat it is when a business owner makes a decision to do something unexpected and innovative. The owner of this bus company believes that by providing wifi on his bus he betters his chances of getting you to ride his bus. This is not profound, it is simply good business.

Based on that concept, then why do we as property and facility managers not realize that by providing services, like wifi, or customer service online 24/7 or automated messages, or client document portals, that can really help grow our business? Why are we not running to get the services or subscriptions for our buildings and facilities? Is it us or is it the building owner? Who is really, driving the bus, to embracing technology in our world?

I find it amazing not to find automation or connectivity in every building or facility I visit. When I travel, I look for places with wifi. Why? Because quite frankly, I cannot work or play without it. Yes, I can use my smartphone as a hotspot now for my laptop, but there are times I need to have wifi. Where I work can change in a moment. I need to work where wifi exists, yet I trudge around looking for the service. IMHO nobody has grabbed this space yet (besides Starbucks, Panera, McDonalds) other than fast food, bookstores, airports, libraries, hotels, and (what is left?)….. No office buildings, retail stores, apartment communities, condominium buildings, medical buildings, and industrial complexes, have really embraced this yet. They are just not feeling the love for these services.

In our industry we have to realize that if a bus can roll down the highway at 65 miles per hour and offer FREE wifi service, should we as building managers embrace this for our clients and visitors too? It seems like a basic utility today, yet there are common areas throughout buildings all over America with no wifi, no online customer service, no 24/7 portals of information! It is the same old thing. Call the office between 9am – 5pm, or we will snail mail it to you or if you are lucky we can send it to you via email.

That spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y in my book! Maybe your property can make a statement or get exposure by offering FREE wifi or online everything, 24/7. Maybe your company can make a statement and offer automated services of the basic paper you are pushing now. These efforts can be turned into exposure or marketing events for your property in the marketplace. They say being 1st is so very important. Why not make your property or company step up and take that step?

Alright, so you do not want to be first. That is totally understood. But guess what? You are NOT first in the world, just first in one small aspect of one single industry. Banking has totally embraced ATM, digital reports, cell phone apps, paperless checks, debit cards, and a host of other customer service tools. The airlines are online for everything. You can see your loved one’s flight online and watch the plane in the air, 24/7/365. Almost every single retailer or product you purchase has online services. You are not 1st in the world, just in our small part of one industry.

Try it by taking a baby step. Take one horribly painful task that is repetitive and paper intensive and think of how you can do it without paper or online or via a software as a service application (SaaS). Think of a communication step that you can use with automation. Once you start the conversation in your building or at your company, it will start to gain momentum. I can promise you that once you and your staff get a taste of efficiency or streamline a process, they will never look back. The only complaint you will get is, ‘Why did we not start this sooner?’

If you want to discuss solutions and ideas or a vision to take for your property or company, email or call me and I will be happy to listen and then may be able to make suggestions for solutions that are at your fingertips NOW! Call 312.725.0060 or email Linda@ManagerLabs.com.

1. Do what you say you will do and exceed customer (tenant and building owner) expectations. Procrastination and letting people down, causes more work in the long run.

2. If you are out of the office, say so on your voicemail or instruct those that answer your calls to let callers know when you will return. Create a list of key VIP building owners, tenants and leasing brokers so those calls and messages are directed to you as soon as possible.

3. Give an alternate human to contact if you are busy or away. People want the answer now! Do not make anyone wait. Use an online VoIP forwarding system to have the “follow me” service to your other offices, cell and mobile lines. Many voice mail systems have great features such as voice mail notification. Each time a voice mail is received, the system calls you on your cell phone.

4. Create an online permanent and on-going, F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions) so the simple and most common questions can be answered immediately, with or without you! (Touch It Once)

5. Stay in front of your tenants. Host mini events as often as possible. For instance invite other businesses, community groups/organizations in your area or service vendors, to your location to educate and inform you, your tenants and your staff. This will keep you in the know and addresses a multitude of outreach goals you must keep up with.

6. Do a one page newsletter or blog on a regular schedule that keeps all clients, customers, staff and key vendors up to date on projects at your properties. Include a copy of this page in your monthly owner report so your Asset Manager or Building Owner see the day to day happenings as well.

7. Proofread. Double check. Do the math twice. Check your work, inspect the final product. It saves tons of time by eliminating the time it takes to unravel silly or careless mistakes.

8. Allow enough time to do projects well and defend your deadline or due date. Do not allow people to push you into accepting a deadline you cannot meet. Explain why you need more time upfront rather than agreeing to a date you cannot achieve. Quality is more important than bad quantity.

9. Think about the next guy to follow you. Document, document, document. Leave an excellent audit trail for the “next guy” to follow. Post-it notes work just fine as the most basic bread crumbs. Just leave something to point the way. We are an industry of change, and we need to embrace that eventual sale or transition.

10. Use your website to set up as many online intake forms and documents as possible. In other words, if you wish tenants to keep you informed when key contact information changes, set up an online form or a downloadable form so those important, but easy to execute tasks can be done with a free and simple form.

This list of basics came to mind because there is so much focus on doing things faster and more efficiently and with less people; but you cannot lose sight of the basics. No matter what the economy or the trends, the above 10 basics can make a difference in your time (property) management efforts. Best of all these 10 basics are FREE or very low cost solutions!

Outsourcing of services has been around forever. Are you not outsourced yourself? So many of us are! If you own the property or building, you are not outsourced. Cloud computing is no different. It is simply a cost benefit analysis, coupled with the power of mobility, ease and efficiency. You do appreciate efficiency, right?

In so many cases we are about being mobile and we have not been good about customer service either. We need to change that. Our people and buildings need mobility and excellent customer service. Today it is not there yet. Cloud computing is the perfect compliment to our industry and our corporate needs. Not only will it reduce our overhead, but it will allow us to move faster and be more nimble. This is especially true in the strong need for our industry to increase collaboration and decrease redundancy.

This is certain.

Think about your own life and the services you find most convenient. Do you like to do business Monday through Friday from 9 to 5, or do you prefer doing business online 24/7/365? You need to think of the internet as an opportunity for your properties, facilities and companies to be open 24/7/365 as well. It is our job and our duty to our clients to capture as much traffic or service inquiries as humanly possible. It is called customer service. While your office may have the door closed and locked, the internet and your website should be open and ready for business. In essence your operation is open and available 24/7/365.  The cost is so miniscule compared to staffing, that it makes no sense to ignore the internet as a vital tool in your business.

Questions, just call us at Manager Labs for a 1/2 hour discussion on taking baby-steps into today’s world of making yourself strong, while the conditions are soft. You will be glad you did!

Merry Christmas to all those in the property and facility management industry. Wishing you old fashioned holiday memories that live on forever in your life. That is what life is all about.

Linda

When I read this blog article I knew I had to share it with our readers and PM/FM followers. I thought it would really hit home with our industry. -Linda

Guest Author Blog Article with permission from Jody Gilbert and Steve Tobak from TechRepublic.com
Date: November 16th, 2010 Author: Steve Tobak

As we discovered in 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager, bosses aren’t usually aware that they are bad bosses. The fact is that nobody wants to believe they’re the problem. Nevertheless, there’s a bell curve for all things involving people, which means there are few really bad bosses, few really good bosses, and most of you fall somewhere in the middle.

To me that says, for the vast majority of you, there’s lots of room for improvement.

So, if you’re not exhibiting any of the 7 Signs, that’s great, pat yourself on the back. Still, if you really want to up your management game, maybe even vault into the executive or ownership ranks someday, you’d better start doing at least a few of these 10 Things That Good Bosses Do.

Incidentally, this isn’t from some academic study. These are real attributes of real bosses, culled from decades of observation, which motivate and inspire employees to perform at their best.

1. Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
2. Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.
3. Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news. To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
4. Manage up … effectively. Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
5. Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
6. Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers, i.e. s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
7. Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
8. Build team spirit. As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
9. Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned, and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.
10. Inspire your people. All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.

All this adds up to an environment where people feel appreciated, recognized, challenged, and appropriately compensated. So what do you think? How do you measure up on the good boss scale?

Steve Tobak – Steve Tobak is a consultant, writer, and former senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He’s the managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based firm that provides strategic consulting, executive coaching, and speaking services to CEOs and management teams of small-to-mid-sized companies. Find out more at www.invisor.net

When I read this blog article I knew I had to share it with our readers and PM/FM followers. I thought it would really hit home with our industry. -Linda

Guest Author Blog Article with permission from Toni Bowers and Patrick Gray from TechRepublic.com
Date: November 4th, 2010 Author: Patrick Gray

Surprisingly, a couple years after “the cloud” first arrived on the IT scene I am still hearing IT leaders speak about it with breathless reverence. Even non-IT executives will proudly announce “Oh, we’ll just put that in the cloud” when any technology-related topic appears in a staff meeting. The fact of the matter is that the cloud is just another boring make vs. buy decision, and the sooner those in IT management realize this, the less likely they are to build potentially career-ending plans based on clouds and rainbows.

So, what is “the cloud”?

Definitions of cloud computing abound, but they overly complicate thing. Essentially, the cloud is little more than “stuff outside your company.” That “stuff” could be processing power, storage, networks, applications or any other bit of technical wizardry. When the CIO says she’ll “put that in the cloud,” all she is really saying is she will take something that was done in-house, and do it with someone else’s “stuff.” You might put any aspect of your internal “stuff” into the cloud, from raw data that you store on another party’s storage systems, to an internal application you run on someone else’s’ hardware. Often, the cloud refers to a third party’s applications, analogous to the enterprise equivalent of gmail or hotmail to employees.

The non-IT reader who is now thinking “Hey, this sounds exactly like what companies have been doing for over 100 years” gets a gold star. Conceptually, all the fancy cloud talk could be applied to anything a company does outside its walls. The toilet paper you purchase from an outside vendor effectively comes “from the cloud,” and the same decision making process that you would use to choose that vendor applies to cloud computing.

Going into the cloud is nothing more than a make vs. buy decision

A frightening part of the over-hyping of the cloud is that it has obfuscated the decision-making process for determining if the cloud is appropriate for a particular IT function. Mysticism seems to creep into any cloud-related discussion, obscuring the fact that deciding to move something into the cloud is a simple make vs. buy calculation. If you are considering moving email into the cloud, tally up the costs of the various servers, software and support, divide by the number of users, and compare that to the per-seat fees from various cloud vendors. If you want to get fancy, include factors that denote reliability, security and support of the vendor.

Unsurprisingly, this process sounds very similar to the process that your COO and his or her staff go through when selecting vendors for critical components and parts. Assuming your company produces physical products, the supply chain and purchasing groups are likely loaded with people that can help you make an exceptionally thorough analysis of the various cloud vendors, and apply appropriate rigor to the process. While those in IT may quip that those buying physical commodities could never understand the subtle nuances of the cloud. However, the supply chain deals with production and design secrets all the time, and reliability is obviously a central concern since a critical vendor could hamper the company’s ability to actually produce products.

If you can present the cloud in these terms, not only can you get internal purchasing expertise onboard to help you make better decisions, but you can have more realistic discussions with your peers. Rather than the cloud offering a voodoo-like panacea to every internal problem, other executives can approach it as a way to cut maintenance and administrative costs, or a way to allow IT to focus on more valuable activities than maintaining email servers or commodity functions and applications.

While the cloud currently has near-magical properties with many, like most emerging technologies these will soon wear thin, and will only serve to build mistrust and skepticism of IT and the CIO if they are sold as magical cure-alls. When you can take a rational look at cloud-based services, and analyze the decision to utilize them just as you would any other third party vendor, the cloud becomes far less hazy and much more practical.

Patrick Gray is the founder and president of Prevoyance Group, and author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology. Prevoyance Group provides strategic IT consulting services to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies. Patrick can be reached at patrick.gray@prevoyancegroup.com

Q. How do I begin to automate or eliminate tasks that will make our property or facility management operations more efficient?

A. The most effective way to understand the task is to investigate. Or as I fondly think of this: investigate to automate or eliminate! The only way I have found to reduce our detail-laden industry is to follow each task like a detective and ask tons of questions. Hence the term, investigate!

In my past positions I would literally walk around and ask people what they were doing and why? I would also ask myself the same question about my own processes and procedures constantly. It was important for me to analyze what I was doing and reflect on how often that task would benefit our operation or company.

My favorite example is filing of anything made of paper. When I polled the staff on what task was the most hated, it was a unanimous vote of – FILING PAPER! Everyone hated it and felt it was wasteful. We began to analyze what we were filing and how we were filing it. Once we learned of the task, we began to measure the frequency of our need to access that paper we filed and how we accessed it: month, alphabetical, property name, client name, chronological, etc.

With a simple task such as filing, and changing your current ways, you will notice so much efficiency unfolding. You must analyze each task with the goal of either elimination or inclusion with another task to make it work smart for you! It may seem tedious, but property and facility management operations are so detail oriented that it really does require an in-depth analysis or investigation of what and why things are being done. Use this simple and short checklist. Post it around the office. Put it in your employee newsletter. Make this your motto – - Investigate to automate or eliminate!

• Think digital. Be sure all of your data and documents are on your server system.
• Follow the reports. Where are they being stored?
• Start a future cut-off date today. In other words, effective 2011, we will no longer ________________________.
• Whatever it is you are doing in 2010, try to stop doing it in 2011. Start a new method with a new year. It makes so much sense because it is easy to remember and document. For instance, if you print reports and file the reports in paper form. Stop all reports as of December 2010. Starting in January 2011, they will be in .pdf (portable document format) and filed in a certain folder on your server.
• Insure all MISSION CRITICAL folders on your server are backed up with a strict method in place. Back-ups need a back-up as well.
• What is inside all of those filing cabinets and how often are they retrieved?
• Back away from the copy machine.
• Stop using the fax machine and start using the scanner or only use the fax machine to scan it.
• How is it being filed/sorted? Is it by property or facility? How you file can make a difference in time and efficiency. By year, month, etc.
• Does everything need a file? Do you really need to file it at all? Keep digging and determining what you really need as compared to what it costs you to perform that task.

We have created a poll at trendycharts called ‘Investigate to Automate or Eliminate’ Are You Thinking Property and Facility Management Efficiency? We would love to see the trend in our industry today and how it evolves. What type of efficiency-minded thinker are you? Will this article change your mind about how you do think? Take the poll and let’s see how our industry is thinking today and into the future.

Remember:
Investigate to Automate or Eliminate.

Q. How do I use technology to generate more business/client/traffic leads for my company or property/facility?

A. Notice, the word ‘leads’? Leads because they are opportunities for business. In this simple blog post, there is no way to tell you how to improve your business itself without knowing a whole lot more information about your business. Leads are simply people making your phone ring, so to speak. In other words, if there are 10 people in your market looking for a business to hire, or an office space to lease, you MUST be sure you get to see those people and at least expose your business to them.

There is no difference in our work to lease or sell a property. If there are 10 opportunities to lease your space or your apartments, or your service centers or storefronts, don’t you push to be sure you see every single deal? The same holds true with your business. Just pretend you are a building owner and your business is a building. Why not push as hard for your business to feed it leads as you do your leasing or investment sales listings?

Here is a simple test: Search for your company or your building in Google Search. Did you find your company or your building? Remember, pretend you are the customer you want to attract. Now that you see what comes up, you need to work to see your business or property come up in that search! Once you see yourself come up in a Google Search, you have accomplished the goal.

Those techniques and tools are a must today if you are going to give your business a chance. In this blog post we share 1 single concept that reveals the most basic fundamental concept you MUST understand and have in place to give your business a chance to see those “new business deals” for your firm or property. If you are a start-up or an existing business, this blog post is of the utmost importance to understand.

Here is the key concept to comprehend………..drum roll, please.

Key Concept

You must have at least one or more versions of your business name, reserved as a domain name.

If you are a new business or an existing business, a new property or an existing property, get the best domain name that describes what you do or the full name of your property. If you can get a keyword in your legal name, that helps tell what you do, that is even better. If your business is a destination or is geographically significant, add the location to your name or geonaming, (made up word) which means, add your location to your domain name or putting your location in your social media names and microsites.

It is difficult to put all of your services into a domain name without it being long. For instance, Property Management, Facility Management or Property and Facility Management, coupled with other services typically provided: leasing, investment sales, project management, consulting, etc., is much too long. I suggest you get your main name reserved, as well as micro-sites in many different configurations. Here are some illustrative examples:

Chicago Property and Facility Management Services, Inc. (super long, but it does say what you do and where you are!) Today, keywords and name searches are really important, especially for mobile use.

http://www.chicagopropertyfacilitymanagementservices.com (Main domain)
http://www.chicagopmfmservices.com (Micro-site)
http://www.chgopmfm.com (Micro-site)

http://www.chicagofacilitymanagement.com

http://www.chicagopropertymanagement.com

http://www.chicagopm.com

http://www.chicagofm.com

http://www.chicagopmfm.com

http://www.chicagoleasing.com

http://www.cpmfms.com

On top of that, you can add the .net, .org, .us, or whatever other category of domain name is applicable to your country or type of business. If your main domain is too long, simply use a shorter version of your name and just forward the other domains to your main site through your domain hosting service. If you use a domain registration service such as GoDaddy, this is super simple and takes a few moments to set up. Now when someone searches for you, no matter what they use, they will find you. Also, the micro-sites are a great way to see what is working in your marketing and promotions. If you know that you always use http://www.chicagoleasing.com for ALL of your “hire us for our leasing” promotions, that traffic is directly attributable to your leasing efforts and is now tracked through that domain.

This is a concept and not an exact blueprint for every business, but in concept, do not limit yourself to one single domain name. Many domain names cost pennies to own and they belong to you once reserved. With the internet exploding and growing, reserve these names now for future use; but always point them to your main site. If you have a long established name, it is also a great way to liven things up in your marketing; add other names that point to your firm. How about http://www.thebestpropertymanagerinchicago.com? or http://www.greatestleasingbroker.com, depending on your business service or http://www.bestplumberinchicago.com, http://www.bestjanitorialinchicago.com, etc. Today with tools like NameCheckList, it is so simple and NameCheckList does all of the heavy lifting for you! There is no excuse any longer as you can now see a complete picture of the name availability of your domain, across multiple opportunties. There is no excuse for any business today, not to be online.

If you do not have the $11.00 to scrape together to reserve the domain name, at least do a Google Place page, Twitter site and Facebook Fan Page, or even Squidoo lens, which are all FREE. Every business should at least have a single page on the internet in some fashion. Reserving your domain name is really step one to embracing the technology available and insuring your company and/or your facility or property has a presence on the internet.

When it comes to your business or name, now is the time to set that up. This is not only your main domain, but your social media names as well. Our industry is so very behind the times, along with our properties. Each property or facility we manage should have their names and a location online to be found. The commercial real estate industry is in its infancy with the internet; so it is not too late. The point is to get your Facebook Fan Page (not Facebook account), Twitter Site, Google Places and domain set up now. Even if you do not have time to use it, at least get your names reserved for future use. Make a pact with your company to include a budget for each property in 2011 called Technology. Include an annual budget for a property website and domain registration. The budget should be at least $5.00 per month! Yes, you heard correct. I am talking about pennies here, just for a single page that gives the basic information. It truly is your job and responsibility to insure your clients and/or your company are not being left behind because you did not reserve the domain name for their company, property or facility.

Take this PM/FM Poll in trendycharts.com. trendycharts is the place to find out what other PM/FM think, so take the poll.

If you need help with this concept for your properties or firm, please send me an email or call me and I am happy to help. My personal agenda is to remind our industry to obtain a good domain name or social media name for their business or property and facility. It is a necessary business decision you must make today.

We have been very fortunate to be able to meet each other as a result of LinkedIn and our group, PFMI. I personally thank LinkedIn for the wonderful job it has done with their website to date. I am writing this post as there is a chance things may “CHANGE”.

That is such a dirty word and nobody wants to hear of that!! CHANGE that hurts the group closeness is my only concern. With that being said, I am concerned that we may lose touch with our group members if what I am hearing is true. This is a plea to all of our PFMI members to please add your contact information to our PFMI beta Directory now. Why? Because if LinkedIn changes their entire system, we will all lose touch with each other! Simple, add your name so we can keep in touch should LinkedIn really change and push some of us away. Here is my reason for writing this and please comment if you have other information. Why?…….

Many LinkedIn Groups have had CHANGES made to their UI (User Interface) that have negatively impacted their connection to their group members and their discussions. The changes will just suddenly appear for PFMI one day and we will not know when it will happen! There is no warning. It can happen today or maybe not happen at all.
The CHANGES make the LinkedIn, we all know and love today, a different product all together. Discussions and News are now combined. The issue is that it combines the personal content from each of us with the RSS Feed articles and hyperlinks. To me it is like oil and water as far as what you see. The RSS Feeds are basically all of the News related to our industry flowing into what we all have perceived as powerful personal communication, or a safe harbor from that exact content. Our PFMI content is solid, personal, real words written by all of us. It is not hyperlinks to blogs and outside websites or media content site feeds. When the change happens we can test things and try to eliminate all News feeds if need be.

Yes, we do like to see News as well, but on our own terms. Right now it feels like we are being tricked a little bit by the RSS Feeds, which look like Discussion Posts. That is the total opposite of what LinkedIn really is. LinkedIn is a direct connect to each other. Clean and clear of clutter and sound bites. In fact, the most aggravating part of LinkedIn has always been the spam, ironically. It was like an angry crowd throwing tomatoes at you when you would try to clutter up discussions. Group managers went to painstaking lengths to fight off the clutter and sound bites or hyperlinks. Now it has literally been mixed in with our precious conversations and valuable knowledge sharing. Real-life people and content is mixed in with Business Week, Feedburner, et al.

It is akin to a bowl of mixed nuts. There are those nuts you just want a big bowl of, but you leave the peanuts behind as all you want are pistachios and cashews. Yes, there are times you will eat a peanut, but you just want a bowl of cashews! To me LinkedIn was a bowl of cashews and now it is trying to be a bowl of mixed nuts.

The other change is that when you go to enter a discussion, it gives you the same 2 box Discussion area, plus a hyperlink area and a “Twitter” share button which lets you simultaneously blast your title of your Discussion through Twitter. Some of us use Twitter, yes, but not all of us!! I have heard that LinkedIn and Twitter may be doing a joint venture on this or maybe the two companies are now owned by the same people now, hence the push for Twitter in more components of LinkedIn. That is a huge change for many of us, but one you do not mind.

I have the new UI in one of my other groups now. There is definitely a new feel and look that is not as easy on the eyes nor is it as enjoyable to visit. Also, since many of us are time strapped business people, we just do not have enough time to try to maneuver through the difference between our awesome content and the RSS feeds. Today there is currently a nice and tranquil calm to LinkedIn. It is slow and easy on the eyes and the list format of the discussion is easy to follow and does not have that frenetic feel. The new UI is like an MSN browser page but less user-friendly and the current LinkedIn is like the Google Search page, clean and easy to navigate.

The Search capability of the Discussions has changed or they have deleted our old content. For now, I am not sure what has happened with our old Discussions. For instance, if you are in the “air filter” business or the “LED lighting” business you currently can search those keywords to see the discussions that appeal to you, etc.

For instance, I know for a fact that Mack Barnhardt has been active in my RoofTop Gardening Group and I thought he had discussed roof vents, air filters and odors in the group. When I search that, I get nothing. All of Mack’s awesome discussions are gone. Now this is new to me, so I may be wrong.

The discussion lists are mainly the RSS feeds from our News Feed and not just Discussions as we were accustomed to. When you click on a Discussion it can take you out of LinkedIn. It can be slow at times, as it opens a new window which may be confusing for many people. Many people feel like they know they are inside LinkedIn, but now you may not know you are leaving LinkedIn when you click on a Discussion. That is a direct result of combining the News Feeds with the Discussions. I am hopeful that will be phased out.

I think the “human condition” appeal of the current LinkedIn is the high tech/high touch feel that you get by having personal written word communication with rock solid, credible content and less graphics and distractions. Your eye keeps you on the words. With the new LinkedIn UI it is a bit distracting as there are a series of boxes for every single Discussion and you change pages quite frequently. Again, that may also change as this is a beta test, we hope. With the current LinkedIn UI, you feel close to those you are communicating with and there is an intimacy and feeling that nothing is between you and those conversations or sources of content. They are honest and real.

Many of all of our discussions are meaty and have great content as they are like mini-blogs from people. Now the new feel is shorter bursts and boxes, like a Twitter/Facebook hybrid. I can see what they want to do, but it needs more work. It is just too much real estate for one single Discussion.

Because each Discussion takes up too much real estate (no pun intended) you get anxious and want to move on and out. There is just too much face to each Discussion, ie. tons of redundant pictures of everyone. The Discussion is broken up in 3 sections. Title, Shortened content, extract of shortened content, more pictures, Facebook/Twitter menu bar, large menu box with your face on it (not needed) and less white space overall, per each Discussion! The current LinkedIn does not show the pictures as much and surround each Discussion with pictures. The current pictures are off to the side and not in the middle of the content, which is distracting. Most people do not want to see their face that much!
As a group owner, the last thing you want to see is your picture a million times. You want to see content from the members! When you comment it should just be a button not another picture of your face reminding yourself how hard you work to keep your conversations going (smaller groups).

If they just go back to Start a Discussion and not bring up “Your Face” and a box, remove the carousel thing or make it optional, remove the News and Discussion combination concept, remove the 3rd “excerpt” box, remove all of the pictures of those who responded under each Discussion, remove the extra set of boxes under the Discussion comment list which again, shows “Your Face”, maybe that will be a new and improved LinkedIn.

I am writing this insanely long piece as a plea to all of you to add your contact information to our PFMI beta Directory. I am doing it here because once they switch our group over to the “New LinkedIn” I am afraid we may lose touch or connection with each other. If that is ok, with you, great, please do it now. I guess I feel so many of you are like friends now and I personally would like to keep in touch, even if LinkedIn changes.

If time permits, please list your information at PFMI beta Directory so we can regroup and follow each other after LinkedIn changes. I really want you to give me your honest feedback after LinkedIn changes so I know how you really feel about it. I am hoping I am wrong here and that you all love the new look and feel and will continue to keep in touch. We all really love the LinkedIn we are using now and I am hoping and praying that by my long post here and other feedback, that LinkedIn may give PFMI a reprieve and not upgrade our group yet. It may be possible for LinkedIn to give us an optional UI format per group. In other words, have a high tech group and a low tech group, for instance. So many of our users have been pressured into using LinkedIn in the first place, we do not want to scare them away. Many are other business generations that do not take kindly to portals like LinkedIn. If you throw this new UI at them, I am afraid they will tire of it quickly and do an “I told you so” and bail out. If that occurs LinkedIn may just be another website or portal that had its day in the sun, but has gone by way of the Netscapes of the world.

July 1st,
is the
trendycharts.com
beta launch!

Stephan Wehner and I have created our first, team, web application. The entire process was developed as an intentional test of our ability to work as a team and collaborate and execute 1 single application in very short order.

We decided that if we were going to work together on the various Manager Labs projects, we needed to test the waters first. We both agreed that there was no other way to do it but to do a test of our team capabilities and our ability to “get the job done”. We are both very excited about tomorrow and are eager for visitor feedback on this project.

The story of trendycharts is simple and is based on the constant need I have observed for folks in the CRE and PM/FM industry to always want to know how many others are doing what and what were they using and who were they using and what do our clients, customers, tenants, colleagues, vendors, committees, boards, think of us? What does the outside world observe and can we influence how they perceive our company or marketing or curb appeal? This is the first Public beta for Manager Labs, so for us, this is big deal in that respect, however, it is not our main application. When contemplating what our mini-project would be, we figured that “the need to know” in our industry was critical now. If you are not checking the pulse of your clients, customers, tenants, vendors, there is no way you can know your future. We felt this mini-project would help us, as well as the entire industry. That is how the trend aspect came to me as well. If I know what you think today, can I influence that thinking? We knew there were many excellent poll and survey sites out there, but none of the sites we were aware of did recurring or interval polls and surveys. What is most interesting about trendycharts.com is how we will be able to monitor and watch for trends and see those trends change. Everybody know the pain of change. We hate change. It is so painful for us as PM/FM people to make a move until there is a trend towards it. Nobody wants to be 1st! This is how trendycharts.com was conceived. From concept we took it from there. I applaud Stephan and technical genius. I can also say I truly enjoyed the project and we hope all of you enjoy it too.

Please help share our excitement by answering a few polls and giving us your feedback. Thanks to all of you who have supported us during this time. During the beta we need the “eagle eyes”. Please share your thoughts about how you see trendycharts.com helping you in your business or if you have issues with its functionality, please let us know.

http://www.trendycharts.com

Also, please feel free to post trendycharts on your favorite social media sites or within your Yahoo, LinkedIn, IREM, CCIM, BOMA, etc. groups. We appreciate all of the momentum we can get. I am loving the various polls people are posting. Yes, already in a couple of days we have had some good ones!!

Have a safe, healthy and happy 4th of July.

Thanks,
Linda
Stephan

Okay people, it is not Greyhound this time, but the bankrupted Amtrak and the very dysfunctional DMV in Las Vegas, Nevada (you had to be there). Our industry has been passed up again! I just heard from a fellow Buzz connection, that Amtrak is now offering free wifi on its trains. While at the same time, I have also learned that the State of Nevada-Las Vegas DMV is following the post office’s APM machine, since 2005 and has kiosk automation that collects money and processes basic services! Although the comments on some of the blogs about Amtrak today, were quite entertaining, the subject reminded me of our recent post, “If a bus, a hamburger and plane can do it, why can’t we?”

Nevada DMV Kiosk, circa 2005.

You may recall that McDonalds offers free wifi at all of its restaurants. I am not talking about slow, bogged down lame wifi here folks. I am talking about super fast and awesome wifi. The workers are clueless that it exists, most of the time, but boy is it fast. I love it. Surf the web and drink coffee and eat yogurt. Yummy.

So when I saw the Buzz this morning that Amtrak now has wifi, I just shook my head. Here we are, property and facility managers with captive audiences all over our properties, owners who want full buildings and no FREE or public wifi or even the thought of automating anything at all! I think it is absolutely unbelievable. How did this happen? How did the world just pass us by? Why and how can the most dysfunctional and blatantly known, perpetually bankrupt Amtrak and the classic DMV offer something as simple as wifi and a kiosk/machine, similar to an ATM, inside a building or facility that we completely manage, repair, clean or worse yet, own. Yet, we still do not have wifi or even the thought of the dream machine like -an APPM (Automated Property Management Machine) for our industry?

I look back over the 30 some years in this industry and shake my head every single day. I talk to property managers, facility managers, service businesses too, that tell me they have no website, no domain name, no awareness of what is happening all around them. What is Twitter is not even remotely in the cards. Now even Facebook has passed all of us up. Yes, Facebook. The app that your great grandmother uses! The buildings are in a time warp or something and the managers got swooped up too! We are all just stumbling and mumbling while this goes on.

Facebook at 500 million users!!

Everything is a swipe, a click, a snap or whatever, but we still have 3 part Peachtree NCR forms on our desk and are filling out paper lease forms and logs on clipboards. It is so funny, but it is not really. It is rather pathetic and mindblowing. There must be something scary to us or we have a fear of technology. I am not exactly sure which. The IT departments at our companies might as well be frozen in giant ice cubes since 2000 (yes, 2000!!) when they started to think that a property or facility manager might be able to use a single computer in an office of 5 people. Oh and they gave us 1 single email address called abccompany1@abccompnay.com. They did stop technology once they rolled out the LANS, only at the corporate office. Each of our desktop machines were not even connected due to the cost of a modem phone line in 2000. I guess that was good enough for us and all we could handle.

Now grant it, there are many that have embraced it, exploited and used it up like it was air, but those are the few and far between. All of those people are at Realcomm right now in Las Vegas, Nevada. They are having a blast and they are mingling and talking to Jim Young about where we are today. (According to Jim that is probably 5% of us are using webbased systems) and Jim is just so worked up right now with all of the enthusiasm you cannot imagine the frenzy and energy at that place. I bet Las Vegas is wondering what on earth came to town!!

I am eager to hear feedback from him and I will do my best to track him down or Jean Claude Goldenstein, the founder of http://www.creopoint.com or others that will be sure to attend. Once I do, I will give you the report and a take away. Many of the people from all of the major software accounting houses are there, along with the technology SaaS people, like Dale Vanderlaan of Realogic and his team. We will find out what and how things went down and share it right here for all of us to learn.

But the icing on the cake of all of this. And this is a true story, for real, totally accurate. I got 3 very fuzzy pictures today. So fuzzy, I do not believe they are real. I actually asked my friend Stan if these were real. He said yes, these are real. Here are 3 pictures of the first that I have ever seen, APPM units. APPM=Automated Property Management Machines. No joke. Read the fuzzy words on the screen. It brings a tear to me eye, it is so awesome. I am hoping that Stan will give me more information on these fuzzy pictures. He had better not be kidding. If it is true and these are real machines (outside of the U.S., of course!) You will all be the very, very first to hear of this. Stay tuned.

APMM = Automated Property Management Machine

Budget Season is coming. What on earth can we all do to make our lives easier for the 2011 budget year?

With all of the power of our groups is there anything we can do as a team to make our budgets easier? How about a state of the industry report from each area of our group? In other words, what do the Janitorial/Cleaning Contractors see for 2011? What should their Janitorial/Cleaning budget description look like and what are some good guidelines for costs? To me that is what I want to see the power of networking do for our industry. We all need the same things. Why not share the information so our lives are much easier? We all need it why not post it online or start collecting the predictions and give reasons why? Just some thoughts for a Friday morning. I would love to go to one place, put in my zip code and get a printout of all of the assumptions I need for my geographic area!! I can then take that data and apply those findings to my budget instead of calling and chasing and begging for answers. How do you do it? Do you share your budget data with other properties or are you an island, like most PM/FM and just use your own data and keep it to yourself?

Click to join:

Follow our group at LinkedIn.com while we discuss this subject and determine what we can do as an industry.