Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey
Wednesday, August 25, 1999

Your favorite Blind Monkey has a friend who makes a living as a big hoo-ha consultant. CEOs and CIOs pay money hand over fist to hear this sexy simian spout corporate buzzwords about relationship building in the splintered Internet age.

Now, I must first admit, spending a day listening to some slick spindoctor purge out the latest big money phlegm and phrases is NOT my idea of a good time. Honestly, I’ve been wondering what in the world this pal of mine is doing with her life. But my curiosity got the better of me and, on a recent trip to my favorite haunt; I picked up one of the books published by this company to find out what it was all about.

Alright, so I’m a cynic — as anyone who suffered through The Disney Way would be. Too many B-rags these days are just glorified self-help pushers trying to convince gullible fools they can motivate themselves into better managers and employees. HA! HA I SAY!!

But, I hate to say it… but The One-to-One Fieldbook is something completely different. A step-by-step guide on implementing the marketing principles that made Don Peppers and Martha Rogers powerhouses in corporate America..

HEY! Come back!! Yes, I said ‘marketing!’ I know it’s a dirty word to my fellow techies out there, but the fact of the matter is.. there is too often a HUGE disconnect between the people who understand the technology, and the people who know how to appeal to customers.

The genius of the this guide (they call it a ‘toolkit’), is that it is filled with step-by-step project plans, checklists, benchmarking tests, and brainstorming activities that help managers optimize technology and intellectual investments to build closer relationships with customers. VERY cool concept.

So how does it do this? It starts at the beginning: ‘Harvest the Low-Hanging Fruit.’ Building one-to-one relationships by increasing cross-selling, reducing processing or transaction costs and customer attrition, and making faster cycle times for processing purchases and other transactions.

All concepts you’ve heard before, but the Fieldbook includes worksheets (also available to download as pdf files via a Website accessed by a password you get when you buy the book) that step you through the actions you need to take to get you there.

It’s amazing how you can be aware of concepts, but when you step back and look with a critical eye, you realize that you’re not actually practicing most of them. Take the section on Information Systems and Data Integrity.

A strong believer in using the power of data to bring an organization better understanding of customers, I am often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all. What the Fieldbook does is help you step back and ask the smart questions, like:

- What dialogue data elements will you need to collect on each customer?
- How can you use the data to predict behaviors of individual customers and prospects?
- Can you use transactional history or any other data elements to eliminate customers or prospects from selected promotions?
- Should you use third-party data-mining tools to analyze your data or should it be built into the functionality of the database?

Well, you get the idea. Now I’m not saying that there aren’t any motivational type rah-rahs in this puppy, but there’s enough stuff you can actually use to make you not mind so much.

If you’re a technology manager, you should read this book. Trust me, I need all the help I can get.

Paperback - 288 pages 1 Ed edition (January 5, 1999) Bantam Books; ISBN: 038549369X; Dimensions (in inches): 1.11 x 9.02 x 7.415

Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey

I often get questions about how to get started in Web design and development, and more importantly, how to do it well. Obviously, these questions aren’t from colleagues, who know that I don’t actually have a clue… but that’s another story. Today I’d like to tell you about one of the few books I’ve found that does a fantastic job of teaching how to blend artistry and functionality. And because it focuses on HTML, it wasn’t out of date before it hit the stands. In fact, it’s been almost a year since it was published and it still has more relevant content than most of the stuff you’ll see on Webmonkey or DevEdge.

Penned by Ardith Ibanez and Natalie Zee, these designers have created some of the sharpest sites on the Net, with Web content and design for Macromedia, Visa, Sony Pictures Entertainment, PhotoDisc, MGM, and more.

Now most HTML books focus on guidance that presents only the most basic dev topics in the driest, coldest language possible. This is most likely due to the fact that techies usually write these books — and that nowadays real designers tend to look down their noses at simple HTML. But HTML Artistry is hands-on Web design guide that step-by-step illustrates all aspects of HTML design, from the simple table layout to full animation with Dynamic HTML. Case studies and inspirational design models will teach you a variety of design principles and how to apply them to your site design. It also does an exceptional job of discussing cross-browser issues and discrepancies, along with alternative means of dealing with each.

Here are some of the great topics you’ll take on:

Designing Intuitive Navigation
Adding Sophistication and Interactivity with HTML and JavaScript
Pushing Your Design with Dynamic HTML
Cascading Style Sheets: Typography Made Simple
Creating the Animations of Your Dreams

These pieces are all fantastic, but my favorite thing about this book is the support. It has a companion Web site where you can download all the code from the book as well as step-by-step tutorials. Tutorials that cover typography, interactivity, navigation, animation, color, and graphics. It’s like getting one-on-one instruction from some of the most talented designers in the business. Now I’d send you to the URL, but to get to the cool stuff, you’ve got to have a password that comes from the book.

So check it out for yourself! It’s got 5 STAR Reviews from everyone who’s visited it on Amazon.com… and more importantly, from the Blind Monkey as well. =)

Paperback - 286 Pages (May 1998) Hayden Books; ISBN: 1568304544 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.67 x 10.00 x 8.06