Unsubscribe
I sometimes do some consulting on digital marketing and have noticed something about the “unsubscribe” feature in distributed email news. Companies provide a number of ways to unsubscribe from newsletters. Some are easy to find. You click, it takes you to a Website, it says “unsubscribed.”
Others hide the unsubscribe link through one of a variety of ways. They may not use the word. The word may not be linked and the link is hard to find, i.e., not underlined or in a different color.
It has been a year since I left Automation World, but they kept my email address alive and forwarded the messages. After a year with an autoreply from my replacement, the only emails I’m getting are newsletters and PR announcements that no longer apply to me.
After leaving day-to-day work at Maintenance Technology, I decided to make a concentrated effort to unsubscribe from everything with the automationworld.com address. I’ve been at it five weeks. My email load is down 75% between that and no more internal communications. What a relief it is!
What do you feel about the unsubscribe process? Or do you ever clean out your inbox occasionally?
Software suppliers expanding footprint
My friend Julie Fraser is an industry analyst specializing in Manufacturing Execution Systems / Manufacturing Operations Management (MES/MOM). Her last blog post looked at companies expanding from MES/MOM and also design into the world of supply chain management.
She rightly considers the major changes that move entails both internally to the supplier and also to the customers.
“Two prominent providers of manufacturing plant floor focused software have recently expanded their scope to include supply chain capabilities. Camstar has developed Omneo, and Dassault DELMIA, which includes Apriso, just announced its intent to buy Quintiq. These are big expansions of footprint, customer base, and markets.
“Expanding the frame of the problem can be very useful for customers and for software developers.
“Yet these moves are also surely going to put these companies out of their traditional comfort zones. The sales model will need to be different, and the marketing as well.
“Expanding the scope of your vision about what constitutes operations is always a good idea. Make everyone part of the solution and your operations can truly become an efficient and effective part of your business.”
Expanding your vision is almost always a good thing. Bringing additional people into the conversation—people who often have been at odds with each other—is an interesting challenge.
ICS CyberSecurity Conference
I missed the news that Joe Weiss sold his industrial control system cyber security conference to Security magazine. Notice of this year’s iteration just reached me. The ICS Cyber Security Conference will be held October 20-23 in Atlanta.
Weiss says, “It has become paramount that critical infrastructures balance the needs of ICS reliability and safety with cyber security.”
MESA welcomes new sponsor
MESA International announced that Stone Technologies Inc., a national systems integration company focused on project delivery, has joined MESA as a Gold Keystone Sponsor.
“We feel that MESA is the definitive voice for our industry and Stone wants to add its voice to the choir,” said Tom Bruhn, vice president, Advanced Manufacturing Solutions, Stone Technologies. “By partnering with MESA as a Keystone Sponsor, we are better positioned to help influence the markets we serve through education and innovation.”
