Chick Fil A Leadercast 2012

Chick-Fil-A Leadercast is an annual one-day leadership event hosted in Atlanta, GA and is broadcast to thousands of people worldwide. This year marked the twelfth year of the event, which was designed to share leadership skills and inspire you in your everyday life, both at home and in the workplace. Arke was proud to be a streaming host site for this year's event, whose theme was "choices."

Speakers included:

• Andy Stanley - Famed leadership speaker and author of The Next Generation Leader
• Tim Tebow - NFL quarterback
• Urban Meyer - Ohio State University football coach
• Soledad O’Brien - CNN Anchor
• Marcus Buckingham - Strength Strategist and author of StandOut
• Angela Arhendts - CEO of Burberry
• John Maxwell – Leadership expert and author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
• Dr. Sheena Iyengar – Author and world-renowned expert on choice
• Dr. Roland Fryer – Harvard Professor and CEO of the Education Innovation Laboratory
• Patrick Lencioni – President of The Table Group and author of The Advantage

Each and every day, we are faced with numerous choices. The choices that we make will determine the kinds of leaders that we become. Choices hold significant power to affect our lives, and the lives of those around us. This year’s conference helped us to prepare for the choices that we will be forced to make, to think logically when faced with a decision, and encourage us to make the best decision possible, which in turn will mold us into greater and more respectable leaders.

Over the next several days, we will be sharing some of our thoughts from this amazing and inspirational event.

Mobile Document Editing and Annotation in Microsoft CRM 2011

While Microsoft CRM 2011 has built-in SharePoint document management it still leaves certain types of mobile users wanting more functionality. And one of the biggest needs is to edit documents without having to always drag out a laptop and find a Wi-Fi connection.

Given the workplace inroads that continue to be made by tablets there would seem to be an excellent opportunity to meld the tablet form factor with remote document management.

Enter iAnnotate from Branchfire (www.branchfire.com). iAnnotate is an amazingly empowering iPad app that allows users to do the following (among many other tasks):

1. Connect to SharePoint document libraries
2. Download and upload PDFs
3. Annotate the documents using drawing tools, attach photos, notes, sound clips, and more

How does that enhance the CRM experience you might ask? At Arke we have Franchising clients that perform regular inspections of their franchisees locations. Armed with nothing but an ordinary iPad the inspectors can take photos of the location, make notes, and upload the finished document directly into SharePoint and hence directly into the CRM system. And all of this with no tedious emailing of attachments, no syncing back up when they log into the corporate network at the end of the week, and no confusion about document versions or which user has the latest copy.

In addition to the above functionality Branchfire should be commended for the extremely simple setup process. I expected to spend half an hour or more connecting to SharePoint. Instead you specify that you want a new WebDAV connection, enter a name for the account, a URL, user id, and password and just like that you’re browsing your SharePoint site. It took this non-iPad user more time to figure out how to navigate around the iPad than to hook iAnnotate up to our SharePoint server.

Our clients have found iAnnotate to be an invaluable tool for improving worker productivity for the mobile workforce and hence for corporate office employees as well. Add in the ultra-low $9.99 price per iPad and it’s a no-brainer if you need remote document annotation and use CRM 2011.

I am not buying on an iPhone

The overwhelming evidence of consumers shifting to mobile is forcing brands to quickly evaluate how to incorporate tablets and smartphones into their digital strategy. Nielsen research showed that 46 percent of US mobile consumers had smartphones as of Q42011, and that figure has continued to quickly grow. In fact, a recent study by IDC revealed that more people in the United States will access the web via mobile devices than via wireline computers by 2015. The drive to mobile begs the question: what's the best path to monetize mobile?

According to research by Adobe, tablet users spend over 50% more on online purchases when compared with smartphone users. Adobe analyzed roughly 16.2 billion online transactions from 150 top U.S. retailers in 2011 for the study. Additionally, the report concluded that tablet users are three times more likely to make a purchase than smartphone users. The findings are not surprising when considering that the browser on a tablet is more similar to one a PC than on a smartphone. For example, in-line videos on an iPad do not play within a native player as they do on an iPhone. Essentially, the display size on the smartphone, which is typically 3.5" to 4.7" does not provides enough room for a user to view a website. Thus, the smartphone is relegated to in-aisle product comparisons experiences whereas the full-form tablets are used for in-home browsing and purchases.

The study demonstrates that brands need to look beyond a one-size-fits-all for mobile screens. Instead, brands need to consider how to shift visitors from one screen to the next. Beyond simply moving smartphone visitors that are browsing products on-the-go to a full website experience on a tablet or a desktop, brands can also take advantage of in-app purchases to convert visitors into customers. But in the next two years, brands should expect to adjust their mobile strategies again as the display size on smartphone devices expand. For example, Samsung is rolling out the Galaxy Note in Q1 2012 which will feature a whopping 5.3" display. As these devices become more commonplace, the line between smartphones and tablets will blur and consumer will become more accustomed to completing purchases via the mobile phone browser instead of defaulting to a mobile application or a tablet.

Arke Systems and Chris Spears Graduate from Emerging 200 Program

Chris Spears and Arke Systems were recognized on November 14^th in a graduation ceremony that honored Chris’ completion of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Emerging 200 Initiative, which honored a group of 11 Atlanta-based inner-city small businesses. Companies are selected to participate in the publically funded program based on their long term growth potential. The e200 program provides small business owners from 10 different cities with over 70 hours of advanced management training courses and concentrates on financials, marketing, human resources, government contracting, and capital access. Arke Systems is a part of the fourth graduating e200 class in Atlanta.

To read more about the U.S. Small Business Administration and their Emerging 200 program, visit their site.

To see pictures from the graduation ceremony, please visit our Facebook page.

John Hightower Receives 40 Under 40 Award from Atlanta Business Chronicle

Arke Systems is excited to announce that our very own John Hightower, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, was named one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40, in an event held on November 10, 2011. This award recognizes the rising stars in Atlanta businesses. This year, the committee at ABC received over 550 nominations, more than double the amount from previous years.

One of John’s proudest accomplishments outside of Arke, includes his work with BlueSky Ministries at the Rehema orphanage in rural Kenya. For the past 5 years, John has helped to educate people in Kenya on AIDS and water sanitation awareness and also helped to install a drip irrigation field for an acre of land. During his time with BlueSky, he has documented over 200 orphan stories. To fund his work in Kenya, John started an annual event, “Rockin’ for Rhema,” a yearly battle of the bands & silent auction.  All of the proceeds from the event are donated to the cause, which has raised $13,000 the past 4 years.

John is a graduate of Georgia Tech and received his MBA from Auburn.

Congratulations John! Please visit our Facebook page to see pictures from the evening.