Kiza Solutions

Hello fellow #workplaceInnovators, busy prototyping your next vision in #spreadsheets. ?? Consider "Spreadsheet Dysfunction #1" on our top 10 list ...?? #Versioning.?Did you know that the simple “Save As” feature can spread a bit of chaos and confusion??"How", you might ask??Versioning should be a good thing, right!? Yes, it should be a great thing to version and store the history of your data.?And done right, it can be.?Versioning will allow you to dig through and ask — “what was that information ... at that time?"??? But a few challenges may come up: ?? - Your teammates may become confused about the source of truth with multiple copies floating around - Uhhh, YOU may also become confused (never happened to me!), and start working from an older copy - Someone else may build other work products based on your model, and start their own development cycle … only to come back to you later to find that your version is now completely different and won't link up - Inevitably, you may “fork” your data model by making changes in only some versions, and a future reporting need may arise that only later exposes this weakness. For example, if you save a monthly copy of a sales forecast, and then only later, accounting asks you to introduce an entirely new factor into your model … you will have no way to easily modify all previous documents.?You will have to #refactor dozens of documents, instead of one behemoth with all of the history in one place. Ack, darn you “Save As!”?You struck again ... ———————— Good news: you can take the sting out of it!?Here are a few tips:????? ? Adopt a clear naming convention such as a #suffix with YYYYMMDD.?That might be good enough to avoid the “Final Final Copy 2.0” naming that you’ve seen around! ? Be the nerd who defines #roles and responsibilities in a tab on the sheet, or in a footer in every email.?Whose?document it is to own??Who can send it along to others? ? Consider locking down the workbook entirely, providing only #read-only access to others.?You may feel like a control freak, but they’ll thank you later! -------------- Lastly, consider what true versioning could look like in a proper #system.?Ideally, a #relationalDatabase can help you 1. version and distribute your models to others while tracking meta data (who versioned this, what is included, why and when), 2. allow you to revert a version, and 3. allow you to keep your data model fully in tact for future needs that might arise! Thank you for reading!!! More to come on this topic next week.

Lookout Austin! Here were come in 124 days ... that is only 83?working days, or 664 working hours. Can you tell we're excited?! #ClarisEngage2025 #Claris #FileMaker #Intrapreneurship

We have created a *brand new series* for you #intrapreneurs about your favorite tool ... and no it is not #powerpoint … ?? We’re talking all about the ubiquitous and remarkably hard-to-beat #spreadsheet!!! ?? We have observed that #intrapreneurs and #workplaceInnovators often live in #spreadsheets, and we love ‘em too!? Your slogan might be: "if you can model it in a spreadsheet, you can make it happen." ?? Spreadsheets help you bring a more solid, digitized model to all of those analogue meeting notes and whiteboard sessions, and they push your thinking into a measurable format: 0s and 1s, rows, columns and cells. They bring structure, yet they also provide endless flexibility.? Excel, Google Sheets, SharePoint Numbers — they do not enforce many (any?!) rules. You can provide any color formatting, merged cells or formulas you’d like.?So they represent a nice middle ground between the more full / formal fidelity of a system, of a robust software solution. ???? In this series, entitled “The 10 Dysfunctions of a Spreadsheet”, we’ll bring 10 unique insights based on our ongoing learning and analyses of dozens of spreadsheets shared with us throughout the years.?And for each post, we’ll offer: 1. Tips for #improving spreadsheets — you may need to deal with what you’ve got for now, and we can help you improve the status quo and watch out for some “#gotchas.” ?? 2. Vision for a #system — we’ll walk you through how a full system may combat the specific dysfunction in question. ?? Thank you for journeying along with us on this series!?We can’t wait. #Claris #LowCode #RapidAppDev #FileMaker #Database

Wonderful being with you Michael Conger and your classes within Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University! Delightful visit. A few takeaways: ?? * Always helpful to have the opportunity to share our journey. Funny how sharing helps reflect and renew in your vision and goals! * Great to learn from you and to be inspired by your class projects. Such warm-hearted and challenging social topics like mental health, mindfulness, textile waste reduction in fashion, community spaces, music, college-to-corporate transitions. * Wonderful encouragement from a few students about really aligning on the larger "why" before going into the "what" of your #socialEnterprise. Love that! Thank you again Miami U!

Download our new #WhitePaper entitled "Reverse-Compatible Modernization." If you can believe it, we wrote this (and all of these posts) ourselves with original research and real-world use cases -- no shade to AI! This puts it all together and wraps up our series on #SystemsModernization. #WorkplaceInnovators, this paper covers: ? Your options for modernization ? Technology goals and expected outcomes ? 10-step process from inventorying your tools to releasing and improving ? Why to release early and often ? How reverse-compatibility changes the game ? Glossary of technical terms for those IT modernization ————————— ————————— #KizaSolutions — #ModernizationSpecialists You may wish to reach out to a #pro for help in modernizing your legacy solution for a number of reasons. You may wish to get deep expertise at key junctions to weigh the tradeoffs between options. You may wish to get a jump on timeline and modernize #faster than you would be able to otherwise. Or you may wish to work in tandem with a team of experts, as a #buildAndTrain initiative. Kiza Solutions *specializes* in #Claris #FileMaker legacy modernization, and we have performed dozens of enterprise-grade modernizations in over a decade in business. We bring transformative value to your modernization through three reasons: 1?? Reverse-Compatible As laid out in this comprehensive guide, we follow a time-tested, unique approach to help you bridge to the new world with #lowRisk of business disruption. This allows us to bring new value into your operation sooner in the process and laser-focus our #impact as we go. 2?? Upshore Founded when Bill and Amanda Bennett lived in East Africa, we continue to draw upon our closely-knit team of experts in our #upshore office. Our teammates make large contributions to your modernization through their honed skills and patient, detailed handiwork. 3?? Chassis We bring along our toolkit of best-in-class modules and user interface #innovations. This allows you to fast-track your modernization while focusing on the business. And we’ll share coding best practices as we go, including standards for code documentation and naming conventions. Tags: #LegacySolution, #LegacyModernization, #Deprecation, #Claris #FileMaker, Database Design Report, Themes, DataAPI, ExecuteSQL, #OttoFMS, #FMPerception, Data Separation Model

#WorkplaceInnovators, consider 1. these key questions to ask testers as you?#modernize, 2. why to involve the naysayers in the first group, and 3. the reasons to seek out #oneBestWay. ?? Ask: “Would you send this Contract PDF to your customer today? Does it have everything that you need in order to move forward and conduct business?” That question has teeth that gets you to the truth of the critical path and smokes out any hesitations. ?? We love to ask — “what has to be true” in order to adopt this feature for prime-time, real business use? That brings a bit more energy and insight vs. “would you please try this out and let me know what you think?” which may not even gain a response from a busy teammate. A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at a client of ours recently also recommended something unique — rather than starting with your “friendly” feedback team for your Beta testing, gather the naysayers or hard-to-please folks together, and hit their objections head on. If you can win these folks over, you can win the larger game! Better to smoke out objections to change than listening for whispers in the hallways. ?? Once you have repointed navigation and given enough time to address any blockers or objections, be sure to remember to shut the back door. Go for the one-best-way, instead of allowing the old. Some of your teammates may be “early adopters”, while some may wait until they are given the final nudge. ?"Turn off the old" interface by placing a large red warning over top -- “Removing soon, please click here to visit the new system.” And after a period of time, fully move the layout objects and old buttons off of the visible screen. Moving them off screen (rather than deleting) helps ensure that users do not have two ways of operating, and that you still retain an easy way to roll back should you hit any unforeseen surprises (such as a yearly function that only exists in the old system.)

#Innovators, drive your team to #release?early and often ??? ... particularly on tricky #systemsModernization initiatives, which have a way of dragging on and on … ???? Those old #legacy tools can be quite difficult to replace!?That’s why we need you to lead.?And remember that reverse-compatibility will help a great deal.?Read on ... At some point in your initiative, you’ll start to see pretty new user interface designs and lots of positive buzz in testing. ?? Yet in the eyes of some executive leadership, your biggest win may come only when you can walk into the conference room, and state confidently that you have “turned off the old system!”?That’s the rubber-meets-road moment, the tangible win that leadership may need to justify this modernization focus. ?? As you work module-by-module, and repoint the old navigation and user interface to the new interface — consider adding a centralized “switch” or toggle to help you do so. That will enable you to not only test, but to be ready for rollback, and to segment only certain users to be on a “Beta” release. ?? For example, you may want to have your Customer Service teammates start using your new Order Entry module, while keeping the rest of the team on the legacy interface. Reverse-compatibility goes a long way in terms of not only easy Beta testing, but also in terms of speeding up total time to delivery by lowering barriers, obstacles and objections. If users know that they can also flip back to the old if they get in a pinch and need to get something out the door, they’ll be much faster to say yes to trying out the new using real, live data.

#CorporateExplorers, another unique tip when leading #modernization: explore whether you can automate your #dataMigration. ???Can you refresh all test data every night?!?Why or why not? This one might seem like overkill.?In short — better to tackle the hardest challenges up front, if you can.?And #dataMigration most certainly represents a significant challenge in seamless systemsModernization.?So let’s do this! ?? Why would we need fresh data automatically every night? We’ll just cut over when we’re ready, right? — big bang ??, turn key ?? , waterfall ??, Bob’s-your-Uncle. (Actually, I grew up with two Uncle Bobs and they rock!) Like getting onto a fast moving walkway ??, if you can first get your data legs moving, you’ll find that your organization will stay in balance when your feet hit the floor. Having fresh test data at your finger tips, automatically blown away and refreshed every night, unlocks a more seamless migration. Create simple scripts to find and import from your legacy files into your new centralized data file. You or your team can typically write these scripts in either the old or the new files — either push or pull.?These scripts will encapsulate and solidify your data transposition.?Rather than endless documentation — as Nike would say: just do it. ???Prove it out, every night, even through changes during the process.?Extract, transform and load (#ETL). We prefer to write them into the new, receiving data file so that they remain centralized and we can do things like log the migration performance. With #Claris #FileMaker, you can also use a tool like #OttoFMS to perform these automated migrations. Within each table, find only the data that you need to bring forward. Fight hard to bring over only what you need, ideally recent records or work in progress. Remember — junk in, junk out. And note that your old system won’t go away immediately, so you can use it to look up older work and then put the files on deep freeze for reference. You’ll not only modernize, but you’ll also have created a great data archiving / retention precedent in the process. Getting this logic down pat, and automating every night gives you plenty of timeline to work out the kinks and smoke out data gremlins / anomalies. ?? You’ll need to refresh data a handful of times even if you skip this step, so why not fully automate it up front and enjoy the benefits downstream?!

Bravi tutti Wisconsin School Music Association! Great working with you as you step forward and blaze the trail with technology. Thank you for the visit and inspiring visioning session Laurie N. Fellenz, Erica and Alec!

Wonderful catching up with Bill and Steve at Rock Cheese Company in Madison Wisconsin! Thank you for always bringing a bit of fun to work -- I enjoyed your Halloween surprise, and as always, your generous spread of cheese! Great working with you.