I'm in the middle of an experiment that hopefully will elevate the role of partners in the SMB market and showcase some of the value that SAP customers get out of their implementations, along with lessons they can share. So - any Business Suite readers can probably tune out.
The idea is to batter down the notion of the pre-canned, scripted-within-an-inch-of-existence and then subjected to an anal probe by the legal department style of customer story with which many of us are familiar. In other words we want real stuff goddamit and that means rough, imperfect stuff that carries the air of authenticity.
Of course there is always a degree of preparation. No customer is going to tolerate some hairy monster like me tipping up, hefting a broadcast camera and a ton of cabling lighting etc without knowing what they're getting into. But...that doesn't mean we have to be formal or that customers need feel they are under the spotlight (sic.) So we adopt a relaxed approach. I guess it helps that I am an unabashed buy side advocate. No toeing the SAP line for me dudes and dudesses.
So far the results are proving useful but more important challenging SAP about what it means to market its solutions. That's good news. However, having someone running around the world with a camera is not a scalable solution. So now we're messing around with Skype.
The first results are promising but not stellar. Skype is a terrific service but many variables are outside my control such as webcam quality, bandwidth at the customer site, location and so on. Video often suffers but as long as we have great audio then it's surprising what people will forgive. Even so, it means we need to get a bit more creative in the post production stuff.
Shown below are four takes on the same thing. A 25 minute conversation with Gabriella Fallman, CIO at Arvid Nordquist has been chopped up into two videos, an Animoto mashup and then finally remixed with voice. Oh yes - the fourth one was to strip out the voice of one video and turn it into a podcast. Five for the price of one!! That's what I call 'cloud economics' in action.
Anyhoo - check them out, see what you think. Do they inspire you to get closer to customers? Do you think these types of media better help understand what customers are about? Do the learnings stick on your mind? Help me get better at these by telling me what you really think.
First the original video
Next the Animoto mashup which includes somePowerpoint and images I found from Arvid Nordquist's web site.
Then a remix of the Animoto mashup with voice over
Finally, the podcast version: is here
