Click to view the free webinar.

Enterprise CIOs are in a bind. On one hand, their organizations are being asked to become more agile and lean. On the other hand, they are being asked to reduce operational costs. Is your path to enhanced business agility and operational efficiency in the cloud?

In this highly informative video, VMware, Tier 3 and Equinix provide you insights into:

• Opportunities for creating business agility and reducing operational overhead with Hybrid Cloud
  
• How IT can extend the benefits of their existing VMware virtualized environment by leveraging the application migration benefits of VMware- based Hybrid Cloud solutions
  
• What essential requirements to look for in your Enteprise Grade Hybrid Cloud Service Provider
  
• What fast, secure connectivity solutions and cloud marketplace services to expect from your colo provider

Speakers are:

• Nic O’Donavan – Solutions Architect, VMware
  
• Bryan Thompson – VP of Services, Tier 3
  
• Lou Najdzin – Vertical Development Director, Global Cloud & IT Services, Equinix

Click to view the free webinar.

AUSTIN, TEXAS (September 16, 2011) – Journyx today announces the addition of new topics, speakers and dates to the 2011 Journyx Webinar Series, a line-up of live and on-demand content from skilled presenters with real world experience. The educational webinars will help professionals further their project management careers, as well as provide Professional Development Units (PDUs) completely free of charge.

New session titles include:

• Extending Microsoft Project and Project Server
• Top 10 Reasons to Outsource Your Finance and Accounting Operations
• Dynamic Project Planning: The Real Way to Execute Projects
• How to Win and Successfully Execute on Defense Contracts
• 5 Ways to Increase Profit with Time Management
• 3 Critical Components of Project Success

The full line-up of webinars along with registration information can be found at http://journyx.com/library/webinars. Journyx also offers a full archive of past webinars.  

About Journyx, Inc.

Journyx helps customers intelligently invest their time and resources to achieve per-person, per-project profitability. Customers include Crate&Barrel, Schlumberger, BP, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Callaway Golf and Honeywell.

Follow Journyx:

• Online: www.journyx.com
• Better Business Blog: http://journyx.com/blog
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/journyx
• LinkedIn: http://tinyurl.com/37hreuz  
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/journyxinc

Burbank, CA, September 14, 2011 – Diskeeper Corporation today announced the appointment of Jerry Baldwin as its new Chief Executive Officer.  Acquiring Mr. Baldwin’s 30-year expertise in the hi-tech industry signals a further expansion of Diskeeper Corporation into the storage performance market where it has maintained a leadership position for decades.

“Diskeeper has a very strong technology portfolio,” said Jerry. “It adds critically needed performance and efficiency improvements to the virtualization and data storage fields and because of this, it is in demand across all the channels – e-tailer, reseller, OEM and distribution. There is an upsurge in Diskeeper product demand at every enterprise level by CIOs desperate to drive cost efficiency down in their IT sectors. 

“We have OEM contracts with two of the largest manufacturers and more have been calling. You have to remember that Diskeeper products are famous for being bullet-proof -- 90% of the Fortune 500, 40 million licenses sold and yet only a handful of tech support calls! That’s unheard of in this business.” 

Jerry Baldwin comes to Diskeeper with a list of accomplishments, many in CXO leadership roles, including taking Fortune 500 companies to their next level. He has helped companies such as BPI/CA, CompUAdd, DEC, EDS and One eCommerce launch new products, build quality channel programs and accelerate sales.

Craig Jensen, Founder and Chairman, said, “We are thrilled to be able to secure someone with the experience and talent of Jerry. As we grow our product family, aggressively build our OEM business and expand our channel and global footprint, we are fortunate to have a leader who has succeeded in each of these areas.”

For more information about Diskeeper and their products, contact Colleen Toumayan by email at ctoumayan@diskeeper.com or by phone at 800-829-6468 ext. 5305.

In our current global economy, the search for qualified project team members expands outward to include the entire globe. A virtual team may be comprised of individuals located throughout the world working together to complete anything from simple to complex projects.

Modern collaboration tools ease the management of these virtual teams by addressing these three primary areas:

1) Collecting information from the team
2) Disseminating information out to the team
3) Facilitating sessions with the team (i.e., status meetings, planning sessions, etc.)

A good foundation, a place to store information that is easy to get to, is a key component of virtual team management. Microsoft’s Sharepoint has become a stable and productive tool for use on any size project. Sharepoint Hosting 2010 adds the convenience of residing on a hosted platform yet is still available to all members of the team. Maintaining the tool becomes the responsibility of the vendor, freeing up the team to focus on the project and deliverables.

Sharepoint provides a place for storing and indexing documents for quick retrieval. Multiple team members can work on the same documents allowing collaboration between people, groups or teams.

Workflow capabilities allow projects to move forward against a defined workplan. Members of the virtual team have a place to enter time worked and status information. Community boards give team members a place to ask questions and discuss project issues.

Another tool, Google Docs, is a relative newcomer to the collaboration toolset. It allows people to work together on various document types, save and organize them, and share them with other teams. With fewer features than Sharepoint but still a serious collaboration tool, Google Docs satisfies the needs of the budget-conscious project team.

For facilitated sessions, Skype and Microsoft Live Meeting allow people to come together from multiple locations and share information. Managing a virtual team still requires making a connection with the team members. These tools allow the project leaders to perform this critical function.

These tools support audio, video, file sharing and screen sharing, capabilities important in any team meeting. These are also very useful tools for training the team and creating presentations for executive members.

There are numerous other tools available online to help a manager coordinate the activities of a virtual team. Online calendar sharing (Google Calendar), scheduling (Tungle), task management (ToodleDo) are all functions available for little cost yet provide high value to the project.

The role of the project manager or team leader does not change when working with virtual teams. Only the tools that they use have changed and evolved. It is still vital for management to know who is doing what, when, how long it takes and the cost impact on the project.

Whether working with a full-featured collaboration platform or piecing together the needed components from various vendors, these tools allow the project manager to work with the virtual team as effectively as if they were all local resources.

(image source: nelsonbj.wordpress.com)