Matrix Group International

Month: November 2019

  • Matrix Group’s Favorite Tech Tools for Staff Productivity

    Matrix Group’s Favorite Tech Tools for Staff Productivity

    hand with tool coming out of laptopLast week, a group of Matrix Group staff hosted a Tech Talk on our favorite tech tools. The Tech Talk was inspired by a conversation with a client who wanted to know more about Slack, one of our favorite tech tools.

    At Matrix Group, we use a lot of tech tools to do our work, stay organized, stay productive. Here are some of our favorites:

    Password Managers

    We handle hundreds of passwords for our clients. It would be downright irresponsible not to have a way to manage these passwords, so we use Secret Server from Thycotic. The rule is: the minute you get a new password, you enter the credentials into Secret Server. And if a client happened to email you the info (we ask them not to, but you know how it goes), we immediately delete every email that contains the info. With Secret Server, we have multiple access levels, a great search, and an audit trail.

    For personal passwords, we like LastPass and Dashlane. It’s work to get it set up, but once the majority of your passwords are in, the convenience of passwords auto-populating and syncing across devices is life changing.

    Speaking of passwords, we sang the praises of two-factor authentication. At the enterprise level, we use Duo and love that we get a push whenever we’re trying to log into a service or website that requires two-factor. Jaime said it best when he said, “I sleep at night knowing that even if the bad guys got my username and password to something, they still wouldn’t be able to hack my accounts because they wouldn’t have access to my second factor, which could be a code or a swipe in an app.”

    Slack

    Slack is a collaboration tool on steroids. To call it instant messaging isn’t quite right.

    • We use it for instant messaging, document sharing, group chats, group calls, and screen sharing. Maki’s IT team uses Slack for their team meetings and screen sharing with staff.
    • We have governance around when to use and when not to use.
    • We’ve integrated with some of our other tools, e.g., Google docs and Jira.
    • We have a channel for every client and functional team to promote collaboration.
    • We allow a bit of fun through emojis, funny gifs and our watercooler channel.

    Did I mention that we seriously love Slack?

    Document Management Through G Suite

    About a year ago, we migrated our file server to Google Drive and never looked back. We love having access to all of our files, from anywhere, on any device. And since our Google Drive is protected with two-factor authentication, we’re confident that our data is as secure as it can be.

    • We have team and client folders.
    • When creating a document, we don’t save to our personal drives. We saved to the proper directory in the shared drives.
    • Everything goes into Drive: contracts, proposals, project specifications, user personas, site maps — everything!

    Document collaboration has been a dream in Google docs and Google slides. On a regular basis, four of us will work on a presentation together and get so much done because we could all access the document at the same time.

    Zoom

    Zoom has fundamentally changed our meetings with clients and remote staff. Although we had Webex before, Zoom is just easier to use, the recordings are easier to download, and it integrates nicely with our new conference room.

    Zoiper

    When we moved to our new office, I asked staff if they wanted a physical phone handset. Very few people raised their hands, so we didn’t buy any. Instead, we gave staff who wanted a phone a license to Zoiper and a Bluetooth handset. This way, staff can make and take calls from their own extension from anywhere, as long as they have their laptop turned on. This means staff who are working from home, at a conference, or at a coffee shop are easily available via their extension.

    And for the folks who don’t have Zoiper? Turns out most staff members don’t really take or make business calls on their own. They are either in a meeting in a conference room (all of our conference rooms have nice speaker phones) or they are with a project manager who has a Bluetooth speakerphone. For the rare times we need to call specific staff members, we use Slack.

    Brave Web Browser

    Jaime sang the praises of Brave, a fast, lightweight and privacy-obsessed web browser. Brave blocks trackers, which means you won’t get tracked by Google Analytics, advertising networks, heat mapping trackers, email trackers. Not so great for marketers, but great for you!

    We talked about many tech tools we love, but these were the most important. How about you? What are YOUR favorite tech tools? How are they changing your work and your say?

     

     

  • 5 Reasons NOT to Rebrand Your Organization

    5 Reasons NOT to Rebrand Your Organization

    In my last blog post, I discussed the 7 good reasons to rebrand your organization. But when does it NOT make sense to rebrand?

    Here’s what my friend Jane Barwis, CEO of BRG Communications, and I have to say about this topic. We recently did a webinar on rebranding because many of our clients are rebranding or thinking about rebranding.

    • Significant brand equity – If your name, logo and other corporate identity pieces are so well known and have really positive brand recognition, we recommend not rebranding. The money you’ll spend updating your brand and then marketing it to your stakeholders may be cost-prohibitive and you may never achieve the same level of brand equity again. Imagine if Coca-Cola changed its name, or changed Coke to something else, or started using blue as its color. How much brand equity would be lost?
    • Celebrating a significant anniversary – We see this a lot. Organizations are coming up on their 50th or 100th anniversary and they decide to rebrand. In our mind, celebrating an anniversary is not good enough reason to rebrand, unless other factors come into play, including the reasons we listed to rebrand, e.g., your audiences have changed, your industry has changed significantly. If this is the case, then it makes sense to use the anniversary as an opportune time to present a new brand.
    • Board feels it’s time to “shake things up” – Sometimes, Boards are unhappy with their organizations because membership is on the decline, meetings revenue is flat, members aren’t happy, yada, yada. Trouble is, a new brand will not fix those problems, which often have to do with poor leadership, strategy and/or execution. By all means rebrand if your organization is making strategic changes and needs to craft a new image, but don’t think that a new name or logo will fix your problems. When did a new logo alone ever fix declining revenues?
    • New leadership wants to “make their mark” – I love this reason. No, not really. Rebranding to make a mark is all about the people wanting to make a mark, and less about the strategic needs of the organization. If you go down this path, your new name, logo, or whatever, will reflect the tastes of your current leadership. What happens when that leadership is gone? Wouldn’t leadership rather be known as the regime, for example, that fixed the organization’s revenue problems, ushered in a new membership model, created a new incentive program for staff, made the decision to go international?
    • Other organizations are rebranding – If other organizations in your space are rebranding because of fundamental shifts in the industry or profession that you must address, then yeah, rebranding makes sense. But if those other organizations are rebranding for any of the reasons above, I say let them spend their money while you focus on increasing membership and revenues.

    Do any of these criteria apply to your organization? If so, I suggest finding ways to respectfully ask your leadership to rethink the reasons. Better yet, redirect them to address more pressing organizational issues, like membership, fine tuning your message for the upcoming election, etc., etc. Good luck!

    In the next blog post, I’ll talk about how to deepen brand equity and recognition. Stay tuned!

  • 7 Reasons to Rebrand Your Organization

    7 Reasons to Rebrand Your Organization

    A brand is not a logo. A brand is not an identity. A brand is not a product. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization. — Marty Neumeier, Author and speaker on all things brand

    I recently did a webinar on branding and rebranding with good friend Jane Barwis, CEO of BRG Communications. We decided to do the webinar because many of our clients are rebranding or thinking about rebranding.

    Before we go into when it’s time to rebrand, let me tell you that rebranding will not fix your organization, increase event registrations, or increase membership. Rebranding could be part of a larger initiative to address organizational challenges, but rebranding on its own will not fix your problems.

    So when IS it time to rebrand? Jane and I think it’s time rebrand or seriously consider a rebrand when any of these apply:

    • Acquisition and/or merger – You’ve merged with another organization, you’ve been bought, or you’ve bought another organization, and together, you want to create a larger, differentiated identity.
    • Industry/profession has evolved – Perhaps your field has undergone some major changes, and you want to demonstrate that your organization has changed with the times and continues to be highly relevant.
    • Audience has expanded or changed, or you want to reach a new audience – Some of our clients now want to communicate directly with the public, or students, or customers of their members. Or maybe they now want to reach Capitol Hill. Targeting new audiences often requires a redo of your core messages and overall brand identity.
    • Products and services have changed – If your organization offerings have changed significantly, you may need to show a new brand to explain the why behind the new offerings, to tie them all together.
    • Need to distance from a negative image – Some organizations rebrand to start over and make a clean break from a scandal, a large misstep, or bad leadership.
    • Need to differentiate from competition – If the competition is fierce and you’re all looking about the same, a rebrand can help you distance yourself from the pack. A rebranding effort will force you to hone in on your (new) core mission, values and benefits, allowing you to more clearly communicate why you are different and better.
    • Geography change (state to national, domestic to international – Going from a smaller to a larger audience often means transitioning from a local or hyperlocal image and mesaging to a broader one. It’s a tricky transition, for sure!

    Do any of these criteria apply to your organization? If so, then you may be ready for a rebrand.

    In my next blog post, I’ll take about when it’s NOT time to rebrand and what you can do if your brand doesn’t need to change but your identity is looking a bit dated!

    What brand challenges is YOUR organization facing?