Question: As an IT Consultant with people already working as many hours as they can, how can I make more money without adding overhead or needing to find new clients?
Answer: The short answer is -bill faster.
Most IT Consulting shops have thousands of dollars of free cash bottled-up in unbilled time. The problem is either:
- Technicians have been on-site, done the work but haven’t reported their time or
- Their time has been entered but it takes a long time for someone to re-key that time in Quickbooks or another accounting package so that it can be billed to the client.
Read the rest of this post »
The Midwest Technology Leaders conference hit a home run this year with the quality of the people it drew. I’m talking about the CIO’s, Directors of IT and most excitingly the IT entrepreneurs, those small business people who have slugged out an IT business in Michigan and have continued to grow.
Frankly, this was a group of people I didn’t know existed in the area (and I’ve been here for 11 years). I saw a slue of these companies come into existence during the .com boom but after the implosion, the landscape seemed dead. Seeing these people all in one room, talking to them -all still hungry, seasoned and focused on growth, created a buzz that I haven’t felt in Michigan in a long time.
I’ve attend conferences and business meetings across the America’s, felt the buzz and creativity in other cities. Attending this event opened the door for a perception change about this region.
Read the rest of this post »
We are happy to announce the release of the Vertabase Timer v. 1.5 to track time on projects and track time on clients. This sleek desktop widget runs on MAC and PC (-its been tested on Leopard and Vista).
New Features include:
1. Addition of a PAUSE button.
2. Making the SHOW TIME time usage report editable.
3. Export to CSV for use in applications like MS Excel and Google Spreadsheets.
4. Export to XML with meaningful node names.
5. Easier autosuggest.
To make this all possible, the Vertabase Timer was entirely rebuilt in Flex.
Join the more than 3,000 people who have already downloaded the Vertabase Timer. You can download the latest version of the time tracking application for free at the Vertabase Timer homepage.
The application runs on Adobe’s AIR.
By the way, all these features came from feedback from our Community. Join now and be heard!
Tell us what you’d like to see in Vertabase Timer to make it easier and more useful for you.
Vertabase is proud to have been honored by the Michigan Council of Women and Technology at their annual Partnership Recognition and Scholarship Award event.
This great organization encourages the advancement of women in technology related fields through mentoring, Summer tech camps for girls, laptop awards and, to-date, 0ver $300,000 in direct scholarships to a remarkable group of people (through the MCWT Foundation). Keep up the great work!
Question: How can government be made more efficient with project management software or by using project management in public administration?
Answer: Project management software provides a clear structure in which all steps of a public works project can be spelled out.
A basic break-down of the steps in a project can provide an effective operational overview of municipal or Federal government projects. This gives executives or public sector employees a clear way to track progress, identify bottlenecks and learn from past projects -because the tasks involved and people or departments associated with those tasks are clearly identified. This level of visibility in public administration can breed increased efficiency and transparency in the use of government resources.
Read the rest of this post »
Export Reports.com added a new feature this week. ExportReports.com will now embed any images in your Basecamp project in the exported pdf. Supported formats include: bmp, gif, jfif, jpeg, jpg, png, pnm, raw, tif, tiff, wbmp
I’d been meaning to write a review of the XO Laptop for the last couple of months.
This recent article in the Wall Street Journal finally prompted me to put this response together.
I purchased one through the special promotion and our kids love it. And continue to love it. It has proven to be a staple when they are bored at home or when we travel -particularly to places without connectivity.
The main functions they use are exactly the creative programs that come pre-loaded.
They are more intuitive than the off-the-shelf equivalents and still offer a tremendous range of creativity -particularly Tom Tom and eToys.
Read the rest of this post »
Happy to announce the beta launch of ExportReports.com!
It creates PDF reports of your Basecamp projects.
ExportReports.com is a collaborative effort with ColdFusion guru Terrence Ryan.
Check it out and let us know what you think.
On the technical side, Export Reports.com is written in Adobe ColdFusion 8 ’cause it works so well with PDF’s (-and we’re big fans anyway).
The popular Vertabase Timer now runs on AIR 1.0.
Visit the Timer download site to get this handy widget to track time on clients or on projects. It runs on both MAC and Windows (because its AIR).
The current version is 0.9 and we’re still collecting feedback via the forum on what you’d like to see in the widget.
Adobe officially launched AIR 1.0 today. Congratulations!
As an early adopter of the technology with our Timer product we are excited to see the technology reach prime-time.
