Other Posts Archives - Page 11 of 21

Surviving the recession: chose your partners wisely

Recession is on everyone’s mind these days. Whether your organization is currently affected by the economic conditions or not, most of us are looking at your spending, to see if where we can save.

Another place to look is your partners: your business partners, your suppliers, your clients. If your main supplier goes bankrupt, it could affect your business as significantly as if your biggest client cancels all orders.

In a recession, the businesses that survive are those with the least debt and those with enough cash flow. As sales may dwindle from lower demand, businesses that are debt-free will be able to weather the storm, while those with a lot of debt would fold under the pressure of the payments.

Furthermore, recessions are good times to invest, to be ready with new offerings when demand picks up on the other side of crisis. Because demand always picks up, sooner or later. However, if all R&D activities are suspended while money is tight, the business falls behind its competition, and it’s very difficult to pick up that lag […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-19T12:48:00-05:002009-01-19|

About the Websystems family

I never thought about our workplace in terms of family-friendliness. Still, there are nine of us at Websystems, and there always seems to be a baby or two on the way.

So I started counting. Between the nine of us, we have 19 children! That’s more than 2 per employee. I think that makes Websystems a very family-friendly workplace!

For Websystems, it’s important to hire the right people and to keep them. By making it easy to balance work and family, we are creating an environment that makes us happy.

For more information on happiness at work, check out the Chief Happiness Officer.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-15T12:29:00-05:002009-01-15|

It’s the human that makes the relationship

I’m a fan of Starbucks coffee. I love the taste and I love the atmosphere for their coffee shops.

In Quebec City, there are three Starbucks stores, and I have my favorite. Because the clientele is different at each place, and because I’ve developed a friendship with the baristas there.

Went I visited New York City for the holidays, I was really looking forward to being in a city that had a Starbucks on every corner (at home, I have to drive a few kilometers to reach one).

Over the 5 days that I spent there, I must have visited at least 6 or 7 different Starbucks stores. And almost every time, I was disappointed. It just didn’t feel the same. Even though it’s the same coffee, the same furniture, the same ads and posters on the walls – they even have the same blackboard drawings!

But it didn’t feel the same as my store here at home.

The difference is the relationship
Even though all the variables are controlled in chains like Starbucks, so that a customer’s experience can be […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-07T16:41:00-05:002009-01-07|

Who likes change?

The short answer: no one.

When we are not the person who has decided the change, it automatically creates uncertainty. There are very few people who like uncertainty in their life.

When project managers decide to change their methods, it creates uncertainty. This uncertainty shows up as resistance to change: in you project team, your organization’s direction and your client.

As the project manager, it’s your job to communicate the change well:

Why are you changing your methods?
What is expected to be gain with this method?
What is the impact of the change on the team, the direction, the client?

Moreover, as the project manager, it’s your job to pay attention to how your stakeholders react to the change.

Are people “getting with the program?”
Is resistance getting stronger or weaker?

It’s important to be close to your team, direction and clients. It’s your responsibility to sell the change, and then make sure it brings the benefits you sold your stakeholders.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-18T09:14:00-05:002008-12-18|

How to get the most out of AceProject, Part III: Printers

Moving a brochure from an idea to a layout to an approved proof to a box of printed copies is no easy task.

With AceProject, printers can move files from one process to the next, and make sure that all the approvals are given before the file goes to the next process.

Create users for each production step in your workflow

At most printers, there are workstations near the presses. Those are not necessarily assigned to specific users. If you want to create a workflow that doesn’t depend on who’s running this part of the workflow, simply create users based on the process.

However you’ll need to make sure there is an email associated with this user, so they can receive email notifications.

Involve your clients

If you often work with the same clients, you can even give them access to AceProject, with limited rights, so that they can upload files, request quotes, or approve work before sending it to press.

Set Finish-to-Start […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-16T14:54:00-05:002008-12-16|

How to get the most out of AceProject, Part II: Teachers and Schools

Last week, we saw how AceProject can help consultants ensure their budgets stay on budget.

This week, we’ll see how teachers and schools can improve communications with their students and keep track of all their classes in a central location. For workshop-oriented classes, AceProject can make your class like a project team.

One project, one class
AceProject helps prepare your materials for your classes. Simply setup each class as a project.

Then, you can create a task for each thing that you need to do to prepare the class, such as your class presentations, exams, or handouts. You can also create a task for each important event when you give the class, such as exam dates and paper due dates.

Not only can you upload all your documents to the task, you can even keep several versions of the same document right there in the task.

Once your class is all setup, you can keep it as a template and recreate the project for each term that […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-11T14:53:00-05:002008-12-11|

Teaching project management with AceProject

Last month, Melinda Cline gave a presentation about using AceProject to teach her students about management information systems and project management systems.

Here are her conclusions:

“Using AceProject, students have an effective tool to increase their understanding of planning, organizing, controlling, and monitoring projects in a global environment. It is a cost effective way for instructors of project management and other IT management topics to introduce students to project management software without having to buy Microsoft Project licenses, which may be very expensive. It also has the advantage of being a web based tool with 24/7 access by students and instructors.”

You can download her PowerPoint presentation here.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-10T15:56:00-05:002008-12-10|

How to get the most out of AceProject, Part I: Consultants

AceProject is used by a wide variety of businesses, in many fields, from construction to health to marketing to product development, and then some.

In this series of articles, I will show you how AceProject can be adapted to a specific field of business.

Part I: Consultants

When you’re a consultant, time is money. Literally. What consultants sell is their time. So it’s very important for them to be able to track and manage their time accurately.

Moreover, when all your projects are client-related, it’s crucial to track billable vs non-billable time, and to respect the time allocated to the project.

Setting how time is managed

In AceProject, you can configure how you will track and manage time.

First of all, you get to decide how your week works: It can start on Saturday, on Sunday or on Monday. Week management is set in Administration > Configuration > Account Info:

Then, you get to decide how time will be categorized in your account. You’re not stuck with default values that have nothing to do with […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-05T15:48:00-05:002008-12-05|

A blast form the past: FreeTaskManager

Back in 2001, AceProject started out as FreeTaskManager. In fact, FreeTaskManager only became AceProject in 2003.

It’s fun to look at the old screen, they feel so…obsolete. And yet, a lot of what make AceProject powerful today was already there.

Here are a few screen captures. Enjoy!

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-03T12:25:00-05:002008-12-03|

Sales and marketing in the same person is good

I’m in charge of both sales and marketing at Websystems. This is highly irregular: at most companies, sales and marketing are kept separate.

However, in a small company like us, it makes more sense to have one person do both sales and marketing. Since our business is online, I can do live demos and write a press release in the same day. I like to keep contact with our potential customers, because it keeps me connected to what people are looking for in a project management system.

It’s very important for marketers to know what their audience is looking for. And it’s very important for the sales team to understand well how marketing wants to present the product.

At Websystems, having both sales and marketing in the same person is beneficial. I get good contact with the market, and I can align my campaigns with current and upcoming trends.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-01T18:48:00-05:002008-12-01|