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Canright Calendar

The green of Spring.

The Canright Calendar is a weekly email of networking events in Chicago. View all of our events here. Sign up for the list here. If you have any other suggestions you’d like us to consider, send them to Alexandra at alexandra@canrightcommunications.com.

WEEK OF 03-20-2023

At our featured events, discuss innovations happening in the design, real estate, and risk insurance industries, hear about Chicago’s opportunity for equitable economic development, celebrate Women’s History Month, and connect with other business professionals.

Investing in Spaces & Building the Future
Tuesday, March 21, 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm
425 S Financial Pl, 3rd Floor, Chicago

Over three years after its onset, COVID-19 continues to reshape how the world functions. Organizations across the globe must rethink how they function to keep stakeholders happy and engaged. As the future of work evolves, the design, real estate, and risk assessment and insurance sectors are all repurposing old models and innovating for the needs of the present and future. In the city of Chicago, organizations must reconsider how they invest in workspaces and secure their assets. The future of The Loop is still uncertain. Join Executives’ Club of Chicago and JLL for a Design, Real Estate, and Risk Summit where industry leaders will discuss innovations happening in the design, real estate, and risk insurance industries.
Register

Celebrating Women’s History Month
Wednesday, March 22, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago

The Professional Women’s Club of Chicago and the Union League Club of Chicago invite you to a networking reception in celebration of the women who’ve helped shape our lives. PWCC, established in July 1998, is proud to serve the community by bringing professional women together in a variety of networking venues to share knowledge, experiences, and resources with other women.
Register

Pure Potential: The Opportunity for Equitable Economic Development in Chicago
Thursday, March 23, 8:30 am – 9:45 am
North Lawndale Employment Network, 1111 S. Homan St., Chicago

The City Club of Chicago presents a moderated discussion about Chicago’s opportunity for equitable economic development. Speakers include Brenda Palms, President and CEO, North Lawndale Employment Network; Darnell Shields, Executive Director, Austin Coming Together; Aron Weisner, Partner and Chief Operating Officer, Celadon Partners LLC, and Jesse Iniguez, Director of Coffee Operations, Back of the Yard Coffee Co. The event will be moderated by Christen Wiggins, Program Manager, We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery.
Register

The Exchange 2023
Wednesday, March 29, 3:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Soldier Field, 1410 Special Olympics Dr, Chicago

The Exchange is the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce’s annual signature showcase, convening Chicago’s diverse business community for an exciting afternoon of networking and business development. The event will be attended by hundreds of local professionals and more than 100 exhibitor booths, making it the Chamber’s largest networking event of the year. Participants represent a diverse cross-section of businesses, including small, midsize and enterprise companies from Chicago’s major industries. A keynote presentation by LinkedIn will kick-off this year’s event at Soldier Field with insights on how to improve your business. The event also includes a Culinary Showcase featuring unique samples from some of Chicago’s best restaurants and bars.
Register

Women’s History Month 2023
Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories
“The National Women’s History Alliance, which spearheaded the movement for March being declared National Women’s History Month, has announced the women’s history theme for 2023, “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.”

Throughout 2023, the NWHA will encourage recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs, podcasts, and more. The timely theme honors women in every community who have devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and reflecting the human condition decade after decade..” [continue reading…]
LEARN MORE

Arts Corner
Canright account manager Alexandra Sulack is an opera singer and voice teacher. She curates arts and wellness recommendations for you.

Don Giovanni – Ouroboros Opera: March 23 and March 26
Horatio N May Chapel at Rosehill Cemetery, 5800 N Ravenswood Ave., Chicago

One of the most important pieces in operatic history, Don Giovanni signals a turning point of what opera will become in the eras to come. For the first time a theme begins with the overture and chases after Don Giovanni all the way until his fiery end.

Don Giovanni a classic example of Mozart’s love of gender and class warfare this time through a retelling of the legend of Don Juan. Come and join us for what Mozart called a “Drama with Jokes” as we tell the legend of one particularly unpleasant man.

This will be a semi-staged production with piano.
Get Tickets

Canright Blog
Top Content Types of 2022
Refine Products with Request for Comment (RFC) Papers
Improving Efficiency with Process Documentation
How to Market Wealth and Capital Markets Technology Innovations
Combating Tribal Knowledge

If you have any other suggestions you’d like us to consider, send them to Alexandra at alexandra@canrightcommunications.com.

Top Content Types of 2022

Computer code, hands typing on a laptop on a blue background

As part of our year-end review, we went through our Google Analytics to see which of our posts and articles performed the best. What struck me most in looking at the top five were their content types, as much as their subject.

1. Analytical Article. Disentangling the Crypto Crash of 2022 is a long-form technology brief we wrote to clarify the difference between digital asset technology and cryptocurrency decisions.  I distilled the analysis from sessions at two conferences. Articles like this demonstrate expertise and can be picked up by or placed in other publications. This version of the article appeared in the TabbForum. 

2. Trend Post. Wealth Technology that Personalizes Portfolios follows a staple of media reporting: the trends story. This piece grew out of a series of start-up presentations at the Morningstar Investment Conference. It provides a list of wealth technology firms while providing market context. We published it in our FinTech Rising blog.

3. Event Coverage. New Horizons in Cryptocurrency covers a session of the Chicago Payments Forum, which our firm produces. We use these articles to publicize payments forum events, establish our expertise in the payments industry, and showcase our event follow-up articles. These kinds of articles help build a community and provide post-event content.

4. How-To Explainer. API Marketing Strategy and Tactics is a blog post that grew out of two client conversations. We summarized the problems and presented some basic research in a digestible format. This post is leading us into a new service offering focused on API documentation.

5. Marketing Sheet. Aligning Business Goals with Technology is a straight marketing piece, and we were somewhat surprised to see it in the top five. Yet good sales pieces educate prospective buyers. Our goal here was to explain the concept of business alignment while showing how we approach it from a communications standpoint.

To learn more about our services, contact us at collin@canrightcommunications.com

Refine Products with Request for Comment (RFC) Papers

Abstract industrial gears on a blue background

As a new product or solution comes together, stakeholders may not have easy access to all the proposed software methodologies in one location. A Request for Comment (RFC) paper can help bring all development information together and act as a forum for stakeholders and teams to refine the new product or solution. This process can also help inform further decisions on how to proceed with development or to not continue a project.

Anatomy of a Request for Comment Paper

An RFC paper typically includes the following types of information:

  • Overview: The overview includes a high-level description of what the new product or solution does. This section can also include links to any related documents or sites that explain the new product or solution.
  • Architecture: The architecture section includes any architecture diagrams for the new product or solution, as well as more in-depth explanations of each part of the architecture.
  • Testing: The testing section includes what is tested and how the testing is completed.
  • Appendix: The appendix includes a list of the RFC paper recipients and when it was sent out for comment. A sub-section of the appendix lists all of the comments received from stakeholders, as well as any further discussion on those stakeholder comments.

The RFC Paper Process

The Request for Comment paper process begins with gathering all the information for the new product or solution, which might include sourcing existing documentation or developer/subject matter expert interview. This information is then formatted into the Overview, Architecture, and Testing sections as necessary.

Next, a first draft of the RFC paper is sent to any knowledgeable developers or subject matter experts to ensure accuracy. Once this first draft is approved, the RFC paper can be sent out to stakeholders for comment.

Comments are collated into the Appendix section as they are received. Any further discussion that arises from those comments is also included. A Request for Comment paper is considered “complete” when all stakeholders and development team members are able to add comments, discuss those comments further, and resolve issues with any proposals contained therein.

To learn more about our services, contact us at collin@canrightcommunications.com

Improving Efficiency with Process Documentation

Does your organization have a system in place for storing and organizing documents? No matter the size of your business, procedures, and processes make up the core of how your company operates.

Process documentation is the act of documenting procedures, processes, and tasks. Think about all of the moving parts that make up your organization. Maybe you have a receptionist and sales department. Perhaps you have a marketing team and an executive team. Every branch of your organization carries out different tasks each day that can be broken down into some sort of step-by-step process. 
 
Without process documentation, a sales team might not know how to catalog a lead. A marketing team might not know how to assemble an email campaign. At the end of the day, processes help streamline your operations so your business can function better and thrive.

Why it Matters

There are many reasons why process documentation is important, including the following:

  • Improves training: Quality process documentation ensures when there is staff turnover or team members moving from department to department, everyone knows what to do at a given time. For new staff, process documentation makes training easier and cuts down on the amount of time that other team members have to spend training and teaching newbies. 
  • Eliminates redundancy: Process documentation is a good way to help eliminate multiple copies of the same document. It helps streamline the documentation process so the same document isn’t being stored in multiple places at once. 
  • Improves overall business processes: When team members have access to thorough process documentation, they’re more likely than not to be able to complete tasks and responsibilities on their own. This efficiency can improve and benefit the business as a whole.
  • Operational consistency and efficiency: Process documentation is imperative for organizations that want their business to operate efficiently and consistently. Additionally, streamlining documentation and making it more concise makes it easier for leaders to audit and enforce processes.
  • Decreases risks: Having process documentation on hand helps cut down on operational risks that could arise with governmental entities and clients.

Organization Improves Efficiency

If your organization lacks process documentation, it’s not too late to get started. Think of process documentation as a blueprint for how your organization operates. It should be the first thing you look at when making major business decisions or adjustments to departments. To get started with your own process documentation plan, consider doing the following:

  • Inventory your current business processes.
  • Follow a structured template to document your processes by department.
    • Accuracy is key. When detailing your processes, don’t skip steps. Make sure that everything is detailed, concise, and easy to follow.
    • Validate the processes you document to ensure accuracy
  • Communicate the process documentation to relevant team members.

What Does Your Process Documentation Look Like?

These are just a few reasons why process documentation matters. Without precise processes for members of your organization to follow, your business operations will falter. Quality, efficient processes save organizations time and money so more resources can be spent on business growth. What does process documentation look like for your company? If you don’t have a documentation process in place, there’s no time like the present to get started.

Contact us if you’re interested in our services at collin@canrightcommunications.com

How to Market Wealth and Capital Markets Technology Innovations

The complexity and maturity of a technology help determine the content used to market and promote it. As with any marketing and PR campaign, the audience you want to reach and the purpose you want to achieve come first.

At Canright, our wealth-technology marketing content focuses on solutions and the value they bring to clients. Take a look at these projects we’ve completed over the years to see how we presented software applications that solve long-standing business and technology problems.

Total Cost of Owning and Managing Options Market Data

A new service of the SpiderRock trading and risk platform provides institutional investors with a system to buy accurate options data tailored to specific trading use cases. This white paper focuses on best practices to give useful information to potential clients while showcasing the firm’s expertise and leadership in options market data.
https://canright.co/OptionsData

Increased Business Competitiveness and Software Developer Productivity

Emerging technology solutions entail the most risk and, as a result, often require a more detailed explanation. This is especially true when selling to business executives and technology leaders in an enterprise market. We developed this brief to educate potential customers and internal stakeholders on what infrastructure-as-code can provide to software development teams.
https://canright.co/ServerlessBrief

Enhanced User Experience and Deeper Data Analysis

Creating PR for large enterprises is a team effort. We contributed messaging to this one for an insurance analytics application that expands legacy-based reporting functions by moving to the public cloud.
https://bit.ly/InsuranceAccounting

Our clients work with the technologies that are determining the shape of business, commerce, and finance. We help them market and sell their ideas, innovations, products, and solutions through clear communications.

Contact us if you’re interested in our services at collin@canrightcommunications.com

Combating Tribal Knowledge

Useful documentation is one of the most important elements for a growing business. Whatever you’re working on, the ability to quickly bring new team members up to speed is a major advantage in efficiency.

That said, for many businesses, good information is hard to find. So-called Tribal Knowledge, where only certain employees within a business have any real knowledge about products, customers, or processes, is by far the rule of the day for most.  

For a rapidly-growing company, information that only exists inside the heads of a few people may as well not exist at all. Finding a route to a good documentation strategy is critical, and it’s simpler than it may seem at first blush to organize effectively.

Make a Plan

Developing a thought-out, organized structure for your documentation is a critical step to take before ever opening a Word document. The better thought-out your specific strategies for content structure before you get started, the stronger foundation you’ll have to keep everything organized.

Keep it Simple!

You don’t have to overthink the structure. It’s tempting, particularly with more complicated subject matters, to create deep, nesting hierarchies of folders that are hyperspecialized to individual topics. This is a trap, as it can be difficult to navigate and, more critically, time-consuming and complex to create in the first place.  

Keep the categories simple and focused on the most important functions and processes for the organization.  

Centralize Control

For many organizations, documentation that exists is built out in an ad hoc way, with each user who has something new to add putting up a new folder or space for their own documentation. This way lies chaos. To keep that information accessible, centralize control over documentation structure with users adhering to the format of one overall vision for your content.

Giving users the ability to add the content they need ensures that the tribe’s needs and desires are met. Focusing that content on a centralized structure and style provides the guard rails which ensure that content is readable, accessible, and usable.

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