About Advancing Insights.

We have several years experience developing and rolling out strategic social software and web 2.0 solutions as well as many more years in business development.

We're a small boutique firm. We can tackle tough problems that traditional business strategies, rigid IT software, and static web sites fail to address. We are made up of a core group of developers and consultants but draw on outside resources for specific tasks.

We're located in Cedar Grove, NJ, USA (about 25 minutes west of NYC). Phone: 973.433.4007 or drop us a line here or Stay connected - RSS Feeds/Site Map

Solving your problem. We know software is only part of the solution. The rest, call it strategy, is understanding: Online communities - Collaboration - Participation - Information Flows - Relationships - How people get work done and User generated content. Having a strategy is critically important.

We initially learned about those ideas and processes from working in open source software (OSS) communities and in business development.

We're committed to delivering scalable, first-class solutions for our customers and their customers by adopting innovative practices and intelligent approaches to our work.

Experiment - start a pilot project.

We use some of the leading open-source web 2.0 and social software applications, which are trusted by thousands of sites worldwide, to deliver outstanding results.

Unleash your imagination!

As consultants and developers, we've implemented solutions for: -- corporate social networks, interactive learning portals, collaborative tools, community software applications, content management, enterprise blogging, publishing, e-comm, and social shopping web applications. We also teach people about Social Information Management (SIM). Knowing SIM is important because social applications generate increasing value as the number of participants expands. Work with us.

There is an abundance of quality, open-source social software to consider.

Basic versions of open-source software: WordPress, Mediawiki, Drupal, Joomla, CiviCRM, and SugarCRM provide an excellent starting point for an integrated, custom solution. They are free to download and use. Note: Extending the basic versions beyond their core functions, say, to meet requirements or specific needs can be challenging. Plus, there are many other considerations, mentioned above, that are critically important to success.

Of course, extending - MS Sharepoint and IBM Lotus Notes - have similar challenges.

What's important to you? Saving time and minimizing risk? ...scale, performance, maintenance? managing online communities, dynamic content, users, information flow, software? ...a personalized design, UI? Having a reliable, go-to resource for help? Give us a call.

The following books will help you understand the dynamics of social software and web 2.0 ideas:

Bonus gift - Social bookmarks

Here Comes Everybody - The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, Clay Shirky - Author
Shirky - Video from Harvard conf.

Communities Dominate Brands - Business and marketing challenges for the 21st century. By Tomi T Ahonen and Alan Moore

The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization. by John Hagel III and John Seely Brown

The Cluetrain Manifesto

We Think, Charles Leadbetter, http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/home.aspx

Small Pieces Loosely Joined. David Weinberger Co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto

Misc. David Weinberger

Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Art of Possibilities, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life, Thomas Malone

The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

Naked Conversations - by Robert Scoble (Author), Shel Israel (Author) "We live in a time when most people don't trust big companies..."

The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki (Author)

Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm by Henry Chesbrough

Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution By Howard Rheingold.

The Hughtrain - Hugh MacLeod

Inspiration - Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful... Video on ted.com

Inspiration - The last lecture of Randy Pausch 1. After receiving a devastating diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, Randy Pausch went on to give a remarkable, life-affirming last lecture to his students and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HqdnjgkExY His new book, ""The Last Lecture". Dr. Pausch, "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than
you think."

Democratizing Innovation by Eric von Hippel

Wikinomics, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

The Long Tail, Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson: The Future of ‘Free’, http://netzoo.net/chris-anderson-the-future-of-free/

Improving Sales for Small to Medium Size Businesses with Web 2.0

Nearly every business has a ton of knowledge and expertise on the key aspects of the business, the products or services it provides, and the customers it serves. Sharing that wealth of information can benefit your customers and your suppliers. But first you need to learn how. Get up to speed on social software applications, web 2.0 technologies along with social information management (SIM). We'll help you make your information more actionable - viral. Social software applications, which are browser based, make it easier to share knowledge that can help you gain more customers or help improve your dealings with suppliers. They are working for professional services, financial services, manufacturing, industrial chemicals, consumer durables, industrial packaging, toy and apparel industries. Start doing things on the net that were unimaginable before.

The back story

There's more to a solution than just software. We've learned a lot working in business development and with open-source social software and web 2.0 applications. We figured out what works, how it works, and where it works, so we can save you time and money.

What's more, in open-source communities, we use an open innovation process, which encourages participation. This is a central principle of web 2.0.

How will you make your project a living, breathing and growing one? Using traditional metrics to find a return on investment for a web 2.0 project is challenging. The best answer for ROI is the level of participation.

We'll help you integrate and apply the right processes as well as develop and implement the right technologies. Call us at 973.433.4007 to get a scalable, first-class solution.

Business Social Software Solutions

Sound familiar?

Scenario 1. An internal customer has come to you with a problem. Her team is consistently missing deadlines because of poor communication. E-mails frequently go unread for days, members don't respond to questions in a timely fashion and too many meetings are required to get everybody back on track. Other email problems include: internal spam, cc, cya, and my fav - reply all. Make connections.

Scenario 2. You're losing business. Customers are defecting to competitors. Your web site is like a museum - look but don't touch. The information is outdated, hard to find. It has no connection to the social web or support for sharing information - rss/xml . The site has no facility for customer interaction or user generated content - reviews, recommendations, voting, comments, etc. Sharing ideas (so they can become viral across the net) and having actionable information is simply impossible. Join the social web and improve marketing and sales.

Scenario 3. You have problems - gigantic gaps - that your business strategy and IT applications fail to address. Your employees, customers, and stakeholders deserve better. You need to innovate and help people make better connections. Your intranet is outdated - broken. There is no facility for follow-up on training, events, conference calls, or conferences.No search. The left hand does't know what the right hand is doing. There's no easy way to capture, share, and track important yet informal information. The kind of information that is not organized or reused - it should be - but tends to get lost. The kind that helps you make better decisions, improve work flows, and customer support. Make your information actionable.

Growing Your Business

Advancing Insights helps businesses unlock and apply the benefits of social networking, content management, online communities, collaborative tools, Web 2.0 technologies, enterprise blogging, and social e-comm.

We take a hybrid approach between open source, closed source, functionality, risk and support to deliver solutions that marry technology and processes. Ones that balance form and function - user experience and social information management.

Grow your business. We offer novel ways of producing value - improved sales and productivity - at very low cost.

About Advancing Insights.

Improving Sales for Small to Medium Size Businesses with Web 2.0

The back story

Business Social Software Solutions

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Growing Your Business

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Connecting - Collaborating - Creating.

Business Development Ideas - Social Networking Applications and Community Software Solutions