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Interview with Ken Fischer, CIO of Clickhelp

I recently met Ken Fischer at SocialDevCampEast and found out that he is CIO (Chief Innovation Officer) of ClickforHelp.com. ClickforHelp.com,Inc (CFH) is an Enterprise-Class IT Consultancy for emerging and small businesses. He has 15 years experience as a senior programmer, manager and entrepreneur. He is the architect of ClickforHelp’s infrastructure and all internally developed software. ClickforHelp carries out specific, well managed tasks for small businesses at a lower-cost and higher quality than is possible through their own staff due to the specialized nature of the tasks and without overburdening their management.

However, the team at ClickforHelp is not stopping there. CFH has a number of service groups with specific focus to help their small business customers. Recently, I was able to catch up with Ken and talk about CFH and its plans for the future. Here is the transcript of that interview:

Steve: You guys have been building ClickforHelp for the last few years. Since this not your first startup, what are some lessons learned, good or bad, which you have applied to this venture?
Ken: In my previous startups, I tried to rely on myself to do too much and did not put in place organized processes to help me be more productive. I have also put more emphasis at ClickforHelp in training managers and cultivating an enthusiastic culture which prides itself on creating unique solutions using the latest techniques and technologies. In short I am learning to be better manager.
Steve: What exactly is ClickforHelp and how can small businesses utilize it?
Ken: ClickforHelp matches business goals to Web 2.0 techniques and technologies. We work with clients to identify ways in which they can become industry leaders through their online presence, take them through the implementation process and continue to support them afterwards. We have several case studies this year of working with companies in different industries to help them offer an online presence which is unique and compelling in their industry.

Steve: Since you are a mix of products and services, how does this mix impact the culture and approach to building internal vs. client solutions? Does one take precedence over the other?
Ken: Any independent service which we offer will have a separate support team so we are not choosing whether to support it or work on a client solution. Our client solutions come first over in house projects. But our in-house projects are mostly smaller experiments which give us experiences and insight into how to create better client solutions. Our core emphasis is on creating online presences which evoke responses rather than convey information. The core of Web 2.0 in general is to provide relevant and accessible content in an interactive fashion and effectively evokes a response from the audience. Often times it does this because it serves a need of the audience not just the need of the publisher or client.

Steve: According to Gartner, “Web 2.0” is in the “Trough of Disillusionment” where is projects over the next 12-18 months that since the hype has worn off that these technologies will be folded into mainstream software development and adoption. Do you agree or disagree and why?
Ken: I think they are referring to specific examples of Web 2.0 such as blogs, podcasts and other types of applications which have gotten very popular. We also don’t believe a blog is an answer for everyone who wants to start a discussion or community but it is for some. We try to find the overlap between the audience’s interests, the available interactive techniques, and the resources of the client or publisher in an innovative way. The underlying principles of content relevance, interactivity, making connections, and, above all, evoking a response from the audience is here is to stay. We are writing our applications with these principles as a guide and adding innovative twists by looking at where an industry does not follow these principles through available services. For instance we just released Get Up! Get Out! Get Moving! Exercise now! This is a facebook application which aims to make exercise a more social activity and therefore more rewarding. We worked with our client, AAOS (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons) to find a unique offering which uses new media principles and promotes exercise in the general population.

Another is the new Rosemasters.com (about to be released). We are adding the ability for flower senders to add a video which the flower recipient receives after getting the flowers. We call these guided conversations. We augment a conversation among the audience by using new media techniques but in a way different than is available through the standard blog, discussion boards, etc.

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a “Top 5” from you. Since we are facing some tough economic times ahead for possibly the next 12-18 months, what are the Top 5 things you would recommend new entrepreneurs running a business should do to weather the storm?
Ken:
1. Innovate. Now is a great time for small companies to innovate because larger companies often do not have the budgets to duplicate your efforts. We recently did a business analysis in real estate for a client, and recommended a completely original niche which is not current being filled by any of the zillion online real estate offerings. We now have the attention of some of the top online listing services even before we have completed the 4 month development cycle.
2. Connect, Connect, Connect. Being part of a community has been a protection in hard times since the dawn of civilization. Web 2.0 techniques and technology have the potential to broaden these efforts and make them highly efficient. Learn how to be valuable in the communities you belong to and they in turn will value you more.
3. Get back to basics. What are ways to increase productivity and decrease costs? There are still a lot of inefficient processes out there. Does the necessary information in your business flow efficiently? This can affect not just the cost of your service but customer satisfaction as well. If provide customers information when and how they need it, their satisfaction will increase.
4. Market Efficiently. To be efficient, you need to determine the ROI of your marketing effort. If you do not have good measures on your use of media, get them immediately. We just finished a project for a client, which measures the effectiveness of media distribution for public service announcements, so they can measure the return on their distribution and production costs. The data unique visualizations we are adding to this project is making the story clearer than ever for our client’s customers, and letting them understand their data better than they could before.
5. Do what you do best but be effective in what you outsource. In order to be effective in outsourcing, you must be first know what that outsourced function is. Outsourcing a process which is not clear to you, is an invitation for ending up with something you either did not need or is not delivered efficiently. We want our clients to know what choices are made and why so they have valid expectations of what can be accomplished. At the same time, our size and structure lets us create enterprise level solutions on a SMB budget, making a more level playing field for our clients.

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