Its done - phew

Did you know that if you search for racing grannies on YouTube, there are over 200 clips. Very cool. At last the web site is live. Punters can now buy their Racing Grannies and Fighting Grandads from the source.

Is it time to resurrect SET

About eight years ago the banks looked at the new world of e-commerce and were horrified at the possibilities for fraud. Visa and MasterCard came up with SET (Secure Electronic Transactions). The idea was that our banks would all issue us with certificates and we would digitally sign every credit card transaction that we made on-line. Huge amounts of money were poured into this and a whole industry created.

• Certificates were going to be put on the chip on our bank card.
• All computers would be made with built-in smart card readers.
• All the e-commerce software was going to be enhanced to support SET.
• Venture capitalists funded software companies by the dozen.
• A web site was set up (it is gone now http://www.setco.org)
• Bankers would tell me that it was 'definitely going to happen'.

At that time cards didn't have chips in them and PCs didn't have card readers. So it was all completely impractical of course. I said so at the time.

Have things changed?

I think they have. In the first place cards do have chips in them. And although PCs don't have card readers, they all have a USB port now. So why not include a wireless proximity gizmo in the credit card (like your Oyster card) and distribute a USB receiver to customers. The receiver would be pretty cheap to make an so the customer would just have to wave the card at the PC to transfer information to it.

Chip and Pin security for ecommerce transactions. It would save banks and merchants lost of dough.

Bob

Does the world need another sales force automation system

Salesforce.com pretty much has the market for Sales Force Automation services sewn up. (it used to be called 'Contact Management') They offer a hosted application accessibile via the web and it is a great product. They deserve their place at the top.

So why have we just release a new Sales Force Automation system?

I don't want to sound too patronising here, but most sales people I know have a relatively short attention span and zero interest in details. They want their tools to be simple, intuitive and fast. So the number of screens and menu options in salesforce.com tend to lead to confusion. I have designed a system based around just two screens.

1. A list of your accounts and a list of current actionss outstanding.
2. A screen about one customer or prospect that you can do anything with by revealing various forms.

The important thing is that neither screen shows all the options up front. But when you click on a link to (say) record a conversation, a form is revealed. Even this form is fairly simple, but as you click on options different bits of the form are revealed. For example if you want to send an email you select from a list of potted emails and a pre-filled email form is presented.

Because our system is integrated with our other software we can customise it. For a client who has an online directory, the sales person can switch directory options on and off and give temporary features from the customer page.

Take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.textor.com/sales-force-automation.html . There is a link to a demo.

Bob