Well, here they are, the first reviews and comments of my book "The Business Technology Handbook".

The book is about making sure technology makes you money, if it doesn't, it must be called furniture!  To break it down, it has been split in to seven sections:

• Company Review
• Financial Review
• Technology Review
• Management Review
• Marketing Review
• Business Plan

In total, there are 29 Chapters and approximately 370 pages.  The supplier index has yet to be completed along with the Index, but these will be done with the help of the publishers.

You know that businesses need technology to work efficiently to generate income. The slicker the operation, the less staff are required. But sadly, sales people don't know enough about business process to recommend sensible integration to make a difference.

The Business Technology Handbook is a great place to start and will help business owners and managers alike challenge sales people and their own ideas about achieving a return on investment from technology.

I hope you enjoy reading the reviews.

I recently read Nigel’s book and found his writing style surprisingly easy to follow and understand and definitely appeals to entrepreneurs - a very interesting read.

I would thoroughly recommend “The Business Technology Handbook” to anyone who wants more out of their business and wishes to keep sales people at bay!

Please keep in touch.

Best regards

Paul Horwitz

www.eass.co.uk

How do you set up a business to be more efficient? There’s plenty of technology out there, from clever phone answering to automated email marketing and sophisticated CRM. So how do you cut through the complexity and find out what will be really effective for you?

In a new book – The Business Technology Handbook – Nigel Maine helps cut through some of that complexity, and points out that it won’t always be the salesman’s responsibility to sell you the best system for you – rather he’ll sell you the system he has to sell. As ever, the devil is in the detail and in stepping back and fundamentally understanding what you want a piece of kit or a system to do for you, before starting to make a shortlist.

Nigel’s background is a very useful one in this instance. He spent years in telecoms, so understands both sides of the fence when looking at the selling-buying interface. His book also contains useful case studies demonstrating how, when you choose the right system – whatever the part of the business you are trying to smarten up – there can be dramatic improvements in efficiency and customer experience.

Nigel doesn’t fall completely for new technology. His book also runs through the time-served marketing steps any business can effectively take through networking and shared promotion, as no amount of email marketing can beat face to face interactions for many businesses.

Link to Marketing International web site.

“For those of us old enough to remember the format of the Haynes manuals for cars, this is the business book equivalent.  Clear chapter listings allow you to get to the section of interest with ease and the sections are well constructed, thought through and presented.

Nigel demonstrates his clear experience and expertise of his subject and this is a great book for small business looking to develop but not sure of all the help, options and technology in the market”.  A real must have!

Simply Consulting is an SME business consultancy, find out more about Simply Consulting...

“In this increasingly noisy world, the job of navigating the ocean of business related technology remains a huge challenge for companies. That’s where this new handbook from Nigel Maine can help.

Think of it as a compass designed to steer business owners and decision makers on a journey of learning. Informative and intelligent content leaves room for questions and acknowledges that there isn’t necessarily just one answer.

Very comforting to have on the desk.”

Regards

Stuart.

Click here to visit Blackbird Communications

Nigel...thanks for the book and its really impressive contents.

Thank you too for thinking that I may be able to contribute to its success in some small way.  The comments below, I hope are helpful and given in the spirit in which they were asked – open and honest.

It certainly establishes a level of credibility in your expertise.  It also does what it says on the cover, it is a handbook, which for me means something to be dipped into as a reference rather than something to be read from cover to cover.  If that’s your intent, I think it does the job.  If, though, it’s for reading front to back, then as even novels with a great and compelling storyline fail to hold me for that many pages, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the patience....even though the content is solid.

In terms of the content...being a symbols and diagram person myself...I find 380+ pages of text, and I looked at each one, pretty daunting.  Who is the target audience – are they more likely to be text people, symbols people, or a mixture.  If either of the last two categories, will the amount of text be, as it was for me, overwhelming?

Given the broad range and depth of the contents, does it perhaps ‘give too much away?’  When I was looking through it I kept thinking, “Mmm, this would be a good workshop, or seminar”, these might be more effective at monetising your knowledge.

Do you, I wonder, need to include so much detail in the Handbook to establish your credibility?

The case studies were interesting because they were stories, and I absorb well from those.  I wondered, although admit may have missed, but what was your connection with each of them?  I wasn’t sure if you were commenting as a complete unconnected 3^rd party or if you had involvement with them.  I like the idea of showing the company names, and the request not to contact them adds to the credibility, I think.

Hope the above helps and happy to browse through the contents face-to-face should you wish for something more specific.

Lastly...can I swap the above comments to hear/see how you created your notepaper frame in your email below?  It is very attractive.

Kind regards...Ivan

To find out more about Living Inside The Brand visit their web site now.

 

Hi Nigel

My apologies for the delay in coming back to you about your book.

I confess I’ve not finished it yet but here are my observations so far ….

• The book is full of good stuff … a real tool kit
• I like being able to dip in and out although cross referencing at start of chapter could be a boon to navigating around the book
• The voice is not yours … or at least not all of the time.  You come across with such enthusiasm and passion face to face that the narrative fails to convey consistently
• There is still a lot of jargon and acronyms in the early chapters which could do with explaining. Have you thought of an “idiots dictionary” to help the technologically comatose?  Also suggest you put your grand-dad’s hat on and ask whether he’d understand!

I’ll keep reading ………….

All the best

Gary

Link to the ActionCoach web Site