Whatever You Need, It's All Here By Kim Phelan
Article Date: 11-01-2008
Copyright(C) 2008 Associated Equipment Distributors. All Rights Reserved.
Industry information, business knowledge, valuable events for you and your customers.
You don’t have to be a neatnik to recognize that clutter and disarray can be annoying at best and positively debilitating when you can’t put your hands on important documents or possessions.Many of you know about the flood AED’s headquarters suffered in mid-September – and if you’ve ever “waded” (sorry) through a natural disaster, even on a small scale like ours, you may well empathize with the sickish feeling of becoming an office refugee in a zone of utter discombobulation. We’re on the homestretch of restoration here at the time of this writing, yet even so, one colleague put out an “all points bulletin” just the other day wondering who pilfered (I mean misplaced) his Bluetooth headset. The device turned up in a random box a few feet from his temporary workspace – but he can tell you firsthand, it stinks when you can’t find what you need, when you need it.That type of frustration can also twist you up pretty tight when you can’t find information you need on a Web site. I confess CED’s site was guilty as charged when a very respected and involved AED dealer approached me last fall about the user-unfriendliness of our site’s search function. He was right – the most basic tool that readers would want to use was fraught with difficulty. Searching our archives to locate a particular article or to research topics we’ve covered over the span of a few years was a hit-or-miss proposition. But I’m pleased to announce this is no longer the case. Thanks to a few rounds at the drawing board, lots of tedious re-archiving, the sheer genius of our Web Services department, and beta testing with my dealer friend who was our “inspiration,” CED’s Web site is a new creature. This summer we launched the new and improved www.cedmag.com, and if you haven’t visited the site recently, I invite you stop in any time. It’s a clean new look but best of all, if you’re looking for articles addressing the business and market issues your company is wrestling with, that search is now simplified and will yield fast results, whether you search by words from a headline or topic, author, or the issue in which it first appeared.
More good news: AED’s home page, www.aednet.org has undergone a redesign as well, and is well worth saving on your Internet browser’s Favorites list. It’s packed with easy-to-locate news, seminars, Annual Meeting & CONDEX details, Managers Conference, plus resources to help address tax and financial questions, public policy concerns, pay scale issues, and countless ways to improve efficiencies in every department of your dealership. We Interrupt This Column With an Important News Flash
The wealth of valuable services AED produces and makes available at www.aednet.org are joined by an immediate and timely addition for dealers and their contractor customers. I have been informed on the eve of going to press that a special Webcast titled “Don’t Get Squeezed by Tight Credit” is taking place Monday, Nov. 17 at 1 p.m. Central. Designed specifically for contractors, this collaborative effort between AED and Cygnus Business Media will feature moderator Garry Bartecki (AED vice president of Finance), who will explore with three experts (1.) when will the credit crisis will end and (2.) what can contractors do in the meantime to get the credit they need to finance their businesses. Visit the AED home page immediately for registration. You will want to bring your key customers to your office that day to provide this enormous value-added service as their consultative partner.Thanks for reading.
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