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Managing Your Business in the Clouds

5/30/2015

 
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Desktops everywhere.  Monitors clogging up valuable desk space.  Desks big enough to accommodate all that bulky equipment taking up valuable floor space in the office.  And what about the employees?  Some could be remote – but with that bulky equipment needed to do their jobs – working “at the office” was more of a “must do” than an “employer preferred option.”

Where we came from…

Sure, even in the early 90’s some employees began taking reasonable arguments to their employers on why the should or could work remotely – at least some of the time – and they even sometimes won those arguments and were allowed to do so.  I had an employee try this in the 90s and I went as far as I was allowed to at the time accommodating his request because I started the 90’s thinking a home office or home business was the way to go.  My mind was going there anyway – I’ve been focused on that for 25+ years.  Ahead of my time?  Hmmm.

Fast forward 20+ years and look where we are now.  I’ve been working from home non-stop since 2006 (almost 9 years now) and desktops – at least in my mind – are a thing of the past.  Mobility is what it’s all about and the cloud – or running application software using internet enabled devices like laptops, yes…desktops, tablets, smart phones and a few other devices (though not ones typically found in the office environment like TVs and Xbox’s, etc.) – is what it’s all about.  But is it how you want to run your business?  Can you really run good business management software in the cloud?  The answer, of course, is a resounding “Yes!”

What about security?  What about collaboration?

What about security and are there good cloud services available?  I’m happy to state that even though nothing is entirely secure – with today’s cloud services your organization is really no more exposed than it was operating outside the cloud a few years back.  And business productivity software is primarily focused on availability in the cloud – unlike 3-5 years ago.  I’m an IT consultant and project manager, so I’m very focused on things like project management software, file management software and software that helps manage software performance and customer relationships (CRM).

Managing, collaborating, and sharing documentation among team members and employees is key to productivity in the workplace right now and in the foreseeable future.  One example of this - Autodesk PLM 360 - helps organizations manage people, projects and business processes very effectively on the cloud.  With collaborative cloud-based software apps like this, your entire team or organization can collaborate, communicate and share ideas and documents – in the cloud – from anywhere…anytime.  Yes, times have changed… much for the better.

Summary

How about your business?  Looking for better cloud-based software that allows for increased collaboration and a cohesive work environment – even if you have a distributed organization with team members and employees located around the country or around the world?  Look out there – nearly everything is available for the cloud…safe and secure with the right cloud services option.  Find one with the security you are looking for at the price you can afford.  They are available in all shapes and sizes.


Should Organizations Supply Consultants with Laptops & Equipment?

5/28/2015

 
Should consultants use their own equipment? Should hiring organizations supply laptops and printers to remote contractors and project managers?

This is a tricky one – and I’m going to look to the general IT community to chime in on this one. After telling you how I feel about this and why, of course. What is your take on BYOD for contractors? What if they are working remotely? I realize supplying devices can get costly, but it may speed up productivity. It may alleviate awkward discussions. Thoughts? What is your organization’s protocol…and why?...
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Book Review: Peter Taylor's "Real Project Management"

5/27/2015

 
The skills and capabilities you WILL need for successful project delivery

Real Project Management. What does that mean? Is there unreal project management? Is there project management that is meaningless, outdated, rigid to the point of not being helpful? Yes. That is what makes this book necessary. And, I might add… a great, enjoyable and informative read...
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Why Are People Skipping My Meetings?

5/27/2015

 
Project meetings are an essential part of every project engagement. It’s where project statuses get relayed, issues get discussed, assignments get reported on and clarified, and key group decisions are made. They must happen. And it’s really important that the key stakeholders are in attendance. You know the ones—usually your team, the customer and whoever else has more than a cursory interest in the project. If your key decision makers are skipping your meetings it can cause critical task or decision delays that need to be made immediately—not a week from now. Especially when you’re trying to be agile!...
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Retaining the Exiting Creative Project Client

5/27/2015

 
Unfortunately, clients come and go. And they do so for a variety of reasons. You can be the best consultant, ad agency, marketing guru or web designer, and if your small to medium sized client with limited resources hires someone internally to do what you are doing for them now, there just isn’t much you can do. What they are saying verbally or through actions is this: ”It’s not you, it’s me. I have a limited budget and I need to try to replace everything you do by hiring my cousin Ernie for awhile and let that fail before I justify bringing you back to do the work for us.” It happens. Sometimes they come back (for me it’s about 50%) and sometimes they just go away into the sunset (and sometimes go out of business entirely). Budget issues are a reality we all must live with...
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How to Keep Your IT Project Sponsor Engaged

5/27/2015

 
Your project sponsor has disappeared and you need him for information, for decision-making, for tasks, and direction? But he is otherwise detained. Here are three strategies for keeping your disappearing project sponsor available to you when you need him most.

Project managers are often operating as lone wolves on the projects they manage. They must make decisions, gather key information, make assignments, and call out project participants (good and bad) along the way if progress is an issue.

We should be able to expect good participation from our project team members. We should be able to expect help from our senior management and key stakeholders along the way – after all they have some sort of vested interest in the success or failure of the project...
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Staying the Course When Your Project is in Trouble

5/26/2015

 
We all hit the wall at some point. Projects go awry, issues mount and we need to take action. The pressure mounts and tests our ability to make good sound decisions for our projects and for our project customers. What’s your point? At what point do you feel like you might be ready to pull all of your hair out and literally lose control? We all – at some time or another – reach that point where we just can’t take it anymore. And what it is depends on us. It may be too much distraction. It may be too much interruption. It may be too much stupidness (you’re resisting the very real temptation to slap someone upside the head – you know what I mean). Or it may be too much pressure. How we handle hitting that breaking point may say a lot about who we are and it may have a big impact on how we’re managing our projects and it may even have a big impact on our careers if the stressor or issue is big enough...
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Security is a Myth - Your Project is Never Safe

5/22/2015

 
The Challenge of Project Risk Management

Risk planning is critical, but it won't safeguard your project or your data or your customer from everything. Somethings you just can't plan for -- so you need to be ready to respond quickly and efficiently.

Risk management. Security. It’s a myth. We can analyze risk for a year for a two-month project and we still couldn’t cover everything. We could build the best security possible…and if someone wants in there is always someone out there who is good enough and skilled enough and bad enough to do it. There is no such thing as a sure thing...
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Starting the Project with Both Feet on the Ground

5/21/2015

 
When the call to start a new project comes, we're often excited, nervous, skeptical, and ambitious all at the same time. At least I know I am.

Excited to show what I can do with a new project from beginning to end. Why? Many times we get charged with taking over someone else's mess. Or restarting an old project that had paused for a few months under different leadership, etc...
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How Did We Pull Off that Creative Project?

5/20/2015

 
As much as we’d like to say what we do is world conquering, end all, cutting edge, state of the art project management… in the end it is, well, project management. And as far as project reporting goes, it is project reporting. You can have whatever templates in place to show a client how detailed you can be, and how you can create wonderful and informative dashboard reports that can basically relay up to the minute information and project status in green, yellow and red. This will give CEOs and project sponsors such good project health information they will be able to consume it through osmosis while they are sleeping, yet it’s still just project reporting. The sun will truly rise tomorrow without it...
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    Brad Egeland


    Brad Egeland has over 25 years of professional IT experience as a developer, manager, project manager, consultant and author.  He has written more than 6,000 expert online articles, eBooks, white papers and video articles for clients worldwide.  If you want Brad to write for your site, contact him.

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