Are your customers abusing you?

Do you have Customers that you dread talking to? You know the types, they are not happy, ever, and have a seemingly endless stream of new requirements (read as: demands) of you and your team. While this post is geared toward those of us who have or are currently working in a large enterprise where database teams and IT specifically work 'for' other internal teams, it applies to everyone with customers or users.
In a large company, you often don't get to 'charge' for your services, the end users get to create requirements and hand them to you, and you don't get to make any requests of them in response, in essence your services are "free". Whenever you offer something for free, you are going to get a somewhat irrational response, people are really effected by the word or concept of "free". Dan Ariely writes about this concept in his book "Predictably Irrational", he shows us through experimentation that when the price is free, the demand will increase incredibly fast, and at the expense of reasonable decision making. I think this holds true in most transactions, whether its free cell phones or free software, if it's free demand will increase beyond what could be expected from otherwise rational consumers. to quote Dan Ariely (@danariely):

... First of all, let me say that there are many times when getting FREE! items can make perfect sense. If you find a bin of FREE! athletic socks at a department store, for instance, there is no downside to grabbing all the socks you can. The critical issue arises when FREE! becomes a struggle between a free item and another item - a struggle in which the presence of FREE! leads us to make a bad decision. *

I have never seen this concept more ably demonstrated than I have working in a large corporate IT department. There are other examples, for example this post on SQLServerCentral's forums is a great example of exactly the same thing happening but in a smaller company

Amazing what a little regulation does for requirements! After looking into PCI requirements, I also found that CSC (or other authentication methods) can never be stored. So when I brought this to the attention of the department head and suggested we look into our options with the lawyer, he quickly rescinded that particular requirement. Turns out, the CSC is not required by our CC processing software, that requirement was just put there "just in case we ever needed it."  (full thread here)

 This is a great example, since there was no cost involved, an unnecessary and in this case legally precarious, requirement was thrown in 'just in case'. For those suffering under the pile of "nice to haves" and "just in case" requirements and constant revisions, what can be done? I have found that even implementing a nominal cost for IT services can have a big impact on the way your customers will view your services. When it comes to nominal cost, it does not have to be monetary, it can be additional regulatory overheard, legal or financial risk, or an unacceptable increase in time lines that brings the needed 'costs' into the equation. The example from the recent forum thread above did not involve any financial costs, the cost was in the potential legal exposure, and the cost was too great. So how does one go about implementing a cost structure in a corporate environment that realistically does not allow you to actually charge money for your interdepartmental services?
If there is a cost center or ledger you can charge, even a nominal amount, then do it. Having to reconcile charges made between departments really isn't money being 'spent' by the company, however having to justify the expense is usually costly enough in terms of hours and headaches to really give someone pause as to whether the expenditure is necessary. I have seen this implemented and work with surprising effectiveness, if the only rationale for requesting something is "why not", then all you need to do is supply that reason. If the concept of charging for a service won't work in your workplace, then charge your customers in a different way, with time. If a requirement is changed or added last minute, address it with the requester by showing him/her what else you are working on and what will suffer delays because of this change, your charging them the opportunity cost of this new item. By having to look over everything they are asking of you and weigh the new requirement against the others, value judgments will be made and unimportant items eliminated quickly.

If you are dealing with a customer or client that is not internal, but are actual customers in the true sense of the word, then it can be trickier to handle. as evidenced here on TechCrunch in a post by @JasonKincaid
there can be a large cost to FREE! promotions, including the overhead to support additional users both with bandwidth/hardware/storage type needs, as well as the user support requirements of exponentially growing a user base that needs support but has paid you nothing in return .In this case there may be a simple answer, stop giving your app away free and you wont have these problems, but if these freeloaders are also paying customers of another of your products or services, alienating them could be costly. You will need or determine whether the traffic and 'exposure' your brand or product is getting has any payoff down the road.

So when you are considering your next set of requirements or thinking of offering a service or product for free, ask your potential customers or users, what is this worth to you? If they can't say, be prepared to propose a value yourself and be confident in asking for compensation for your hard work, and both you and your consumer will be satisfied that value is being exchanged for value.

*Ariely, Dan Predictably Irrational. New York: Harper Perennial 2010
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

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How is the role of the 'Analyst' changing in a data driven world?

     I remember the days when I was considered a top notch resource when it came to answering data driven questions. My Excel sheets were sparkling, my PowerPoint slides were beautiful, and my MS Access database was driving it all. In those days, when you needed to know how many widgets the sales team had sold, you asked them for their results sheet, and probably received it by email. When you needed to see attendance records for the call centers, they replied with their own spreadsheet, and a few paper based updates perhaps. After you had all your data collected and entered or imported to Access you could do with it what you pleased, and get some results worth sharing. But those days are gone, over the last 10 years I have witnessed an amazing transition from the scenario I describe above to the new paradigm of the 'Analyst' as power user and SQL dabbler. The data companies house internally is larger and more broad than ever before and growing quickly, and in order to present informed conclusions about a business, market or customer group, you need to be able to intelligently ask questions of these large stores of data.
     Enter the new 'Analyst', someone who is expected to know how to interact with databases like never before and to collate and present data from varied sources. Where a job description from those bygone days might have read "requires advanced MS Office suite knowledge" it is typical now to see requirements similar to "Must be familiar with SQL querying and tools such as SQL Server, Toad for SQL or PC SAS in order to gather results".

Approach your boss about working from home

So you want to work from home? Sure, why not right? Well, "why not" is the easier question to answer here, but when your manager asks you "Why should I allow you to do that?" what will you answer?

Here are a few pointers to make sure that you are prepared when you get that question, and you will get it if you choose to pursue working from home without changing jobs.

Like most things in business, showing your boss why granting your request, any request, is good for him or her as well as yourself is paramount. If there is no benefit to granting the request, you really have not answered the "why?" question at all.

So let's look at 'why' by breaking it into two categories, benefits to the organization and benefits to the individual, and they don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Benefits To The Business

• Cost Savings - If you don't lead off with this one, you're really setting yourself up for failure. Take a look at the total cost of having an employee in the office, beside the obvious rent/utility expense, there are the often overlooked expenses of building security, insurance, benefits like food/drink subsidy, on site gym, day care etc and the big one people most often miss, liability. When you are in your company's building, they are liable for your safety and security, if you are in your own home, they get to transfer that liability to you. So for an employer who has more than a few people in one spot, this can be attractive. Present these cost savings along with your best estimates to your management and see if you can open their eyes a little to the somewhat hidden benefits of having fewer people on site.

• Employee Satisfaction and Retention - This is another big one, for both the employer and employee. If you're asking for it, it will obviously make you happy, but for the employer, it can help retain and attract top talent. Having a defined program in place so that people know they will have an opportunity to work from home is a great benefit that many people will value highly, and that value goes up every time gas pries increase and traffic gets worse. A good way to present this is to highlight success stories from other companies in your industry or field and to cite examples from recruiters who can tell you how highly talented job seekers value working from home. Here are a couple great examples of things to site:
• Since I'm in Massachusetts, and in software, here is an example local to me: Software firms enabling Work from Home
• If you're company is environmentally focused, some good stats here: Telecommuting an environmental success story
• And if a they need to hear is 'everyone else is doing it' try here for loads of good stats: TeleWorkResearchNetwork

• Productivity - If you are in software development or software production support, working from home can give you the flexibility to work when you are needed, not when the office is most full. If you have offshore developers you can meet with them, if you have production issues come up late at night you can deal with them, if you have things happening in your life to deal with, you can do it without losing a whole day in the office. Its has been demonstrated (and I can confirm through personal experience  that you will work more and work more productively if you are free to do so when the moment is right and not just between 8am and 5pm. I know this does not apply universally, but in my SQL Server jobs it has always been to the company's advantage that I could just go downstairs and turn on my computer when I get a page instead of having to get dressed, pack up and drive 30 mins before I can even start working the issue. 
• Research on the hours people tend to work at home compared to at the office: BusinessWeek

EDIT - I don't think I made my point clear enough yesterday, I think the best way to get the answer you want to this and almost any other request at work, is to present a case that is already closed. By that I mean you need to package up the benefits and savings in a way the person you are asking can understand and use, and you need to anticipate their questions and objections and have those answers ready as well. By being prepared with facts and case studies, and an impassioned personal plea, you will have given them all the material they need to make the best decision, or to present your case on your behalf to decision makers. Leaving things open to interpretation or assumptions is your worst enemy here, because people can and will assume the worst.

Click here to proceed to Part 2: Benefits to the Employee