The original post here Happy New Year 2010

With  palindromic answers

OK I promise to try to get out more ..  it’s working in IT that  does it.

Perhaps we should ask this question in the form of a survey?

So, one more time is issuing project drawings and specifications:

1. Simple and straightforward
2. Difficult and time-consuming
3. A nightmare

The next question would probably be why?

Not, why as in why is it difficult? but rather why as why do allow it to become difficult and problematic when there are a variety of tools available to make this task easier and less time-consuming?

I’m sure we all start with good intentions, you have some drawings to issue, there are several stages that need to be addressed.

Firstly, there’s the good old drawing register that will need to be updated (where’s that kept again?) Then the “interested parties”, “contractors and subcontractors” clients, and of course your own team (I think the generic term is stakeholders), need to be informed and finally but of course not least the content itself needs to be delivered.
Taking that stage by stage identifies the hurdles:

• Where was that drawing register kept again–is it easy to update?
• Then things get a little more complicated exactly who are the stakeholders on this project? Probably almost the same as the last project , but not quite (must be sure to include everybody, the consequences of missing one or two persons out can be quite catastrophic!).
• Finally of course the content needs to be delivered. Depending on which decade your business is working in that could be print multiple copies (oh dear the cost!), package up (time and effort, distress), deliver (postage, courier, carrier pigeon, or carrier eagle more like!)
• But no, let’s be realistic–nowadays its e-mail, much easier surely! – Perhaps not, [your e-mail has been rejected] because it was too large/too suspicious looking/not from our own department/your client did not get the e-mail/did get it but lost it/replied to you with amendments (which you now need to reintroduce and start the whole process again)

I did mention there was an easier way.

Create a project folder in Collabor8online
Upload the drawing register
Upload the drawings

That’s it - Collabor8online does all the rest for you!

When you upload amended drawings to Collabor8online, it will automatically notify all stakeholders and  increment document version numbers. You can access documentation stored on Collabor8online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and from anywhere with an internet connection.

All comments, feedback and contributions are channeled back through Collabor8online giving you one channel of communication, leading to one version of the truth and less frequent nightmares!

Call 0203 369 6491

Rosebery Group’s Gary Burgen

The clients embraced it immediately and that has no doubt assisted the rapid uptake of Collabor8 across the whole group. With the type of projects we deliver, it is important that we address the needs of every department, from the Quantity Surveyors and Civil Engineers through to the Electrical and Mechanical Contractors. With Collabor8online we have found that we can keep everything in one place, and everybody knows where that is.

Read Rosebery Group Full Case Study

Dave Moran of D&L Electrical
 

Collabor8online met all our requirements with regards to providing a documentation extranet for our MCS work, were already looking at how we can extend its usage to other areas of our business, but so far we’ve been delighted with the results. Most importantly it sets us apart from all the contracting organisations who aren’t offering this type of service

Read D&L Electrical Ltd full case study

Read More Client Testimonials

London 0203 369 6491
Manchester 0162 920 6491
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Winning Contracts is hard, so when you win one you better make sure you run it as efficiently as possible.

For example, are you fully equipped to react quickly to project changes? Collabor8online lets you update your project documentation quickly and make all team members aware of project changes.

By team members we don’t just mean your team, but your subcontractors and your clients. Client “buy in” is a hugely important factor in the success of online project management systems. Clients feel “included”, they have access to the information about their project that’s important to them. Issues are brought out into the open, discussed and resolved before they cause a problem. Crises are averted, mistakes minimised or removed completely, time is saved, money is saved, job done.

With an online project management software solution such as collabo8online, you have one central repository from your project documentation and you can access all your files from wherever you are and whenever you want.

Operatives can update project information from site, complete timesheets or job sheets from home, more travelling averted, more time saved, efficiencies gained.

The question is how long can you afford to manage without it?

NO long-term contract, you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel any time!

We’ve had a record week signups, from from Lancashire to Lima, from Pennsylvania to Ponders End even as far away Shanghai The Cloud is shrinking the world!

Try for Free
 

PS can anyone recommend a Mandarin translation service?

“The good thing about Collabor8online is that you can share your files and projects with others, without them having to be registered as users. This will contribute to save time because others can use the online tools right away without undergoing a registration process.” /More

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves

[*delete as appropriate]

This of course is a “Key personnel” issue, how could you or your business cope if an important member of your staff was, for some reason absent or just plain unavailable? People become “unavailable” for a variety of reasons sickness being probably the most common, anything from a heavy cold to a heart attack can cause even the most dependable team member to “cry off”.

But other reasons, often less dramatic but no less real abound; family crises, car breakdowns, strikes, volcanoes, Valerie from typing (okay, I’m pushing in the last point but if I asked you to fill your own in here, I’m sure you could!)

People being people (not machines) occasionally have to absent themselves from work and the question is, could you cope?

Of course timing is everything, a few weeks warning would be nice but often is not forthcoming.  The call typically comes on a Friday afternoon, the key staff member who was organising the event/project/meeting on Monday is in hospital/detained (or whatever) somebody needs to step in quickly and fill his/her place.

So where do you start? Where had your key person got up to? Where is the paperwork, guest-list, Project documents, contact details or timetable. Please don’t say was all on his laptop! Or on the office file server! It’s weekend and the IT department are most definitely not around.

At this point the cloud based project management system would probably seem like a good idea. Projects can be organised around standard templates, so another team member who has to step in at short notice will see a familiar format and most importantly, all the project documentation will be immediately visible to him/her.

Accessible 24/7, 365 days a year, a little light reading over the weekend should bring your new project manager up to speed, and Mondays’ event or meeting can go ahead without a hiccup.

In fact, your clients and contacts will probably be all the more impressed, recognising that you had the infrastructure in place to overcome such difficulties.

Of course with a cloud-based system the infrastructure need not be yours at all, all you need is a PC with an Internet connection (also available at most modern coffee shops!), to connect to your own private portion of the cloud where your project documentation can be stored and retained safely.

We’ve often written in the past about physical disasters, fires, thefts or floods and how our cloud-based solutions can help you overcome them. But of course most businesses will have insurance to cover such events, personal disasters are in fact more common and as such it is necessary to create your own insurance.

If you’d like to learn more about sharing documents, managing projects and communicating with Collabor8Online, click or call the numbers below.

London 0203 369 6491
Manchester 0162 920 6491

I’m actually embarrassed typing the title; it’s my wife’s preserve to ask her friends “what are you wearing?” I will just pitch up in the designated appropriate attire (whatever that is), I will take literally seconds to pick shirt/jacket/jeans and I confess as I get older, how comfortable it is has more of an influence than how it looks.

But social events aside–what about business or network meetings, what IS the appropriate dress code?

5 years ago, I knew exactly where I stood. I wore a suit and tie, I’d worn a suit and tie for the last 20 years, I sold computer systems to businesses, you were expected to dress like a bank manager or accountant in fact IBM almost had a uniform, blue suit, white shirt, shade of blue tie (they weren’t called the big blue for nothing) it was appropriate, it was expected and get this, it worked!

People weren’t about to spend their hard earned cash on technology that they probably didn’t understand on some bloke that pitched up in his jeans and boots. The reason for this is simple, people judge other people on the following criteria IN THIS ORDER!

1. How you look

2. How you sound

3. What you say

Note that it’s only the last point that relates to whether you said anything sensible, the point above it really describes how much conviction and belief you had when you said it and the most important point has nothing to do with what you said and was all about how you look!

History affords a is a glorious example, President John F. Kennedy, famously declared by the Berlin Wall Ich bin ein Berliner famously declaring his support for all Berlin citizens and their fight for freedom. However, the literal translation refers to a local favorite snack and means “I am a Jelly filled doughnut!” – The point being it wasn’t exactly what he said but the way he said it that counted for so much!

So to the question of appropriate attire, well, for many years appropriate business attire was undoubtedly suit or jacket and tie, we knew where we stood. Unless you were a tradesman, artist or pop star you’d just had to learn how to tie a Windsor knot or something similar! Then came old Dickie Branson with his woolly jumpers, I think at this point most of us turned a blind eye. We recognised that old Dickie was a bit of an eccentric, quite brilliant in his own way but we weren’t going to follow his example and get granny reaching for the knitting needles. After all the bloke was living on a canal boat, he was bound to do his own thing.

I blame Stelios. When an airline chief executive turns up without tie you’ve got to take notice. Okay he was always new wave, new business model, new airline obviously! But he was a serious entrepreneur pitching up in a suit but no tie, for me it moved the goalposts.

I moved into no tie mode for the next 5 years, the trouble is so did everybody else and now jacket/jeans and no tie mode is almost as much of a uniform as IBM’s was back in the day.

The upshot is I’ve suddenly disappeared, people don’t know whether I’m trustworthy, new wave, new kid on the block, old kid on the block or I’ve just forgotten my tie!

I’m still trying to get people to invest in my IT services, the problem is they don’t know whether I’m part of a global enterprise with servers on every continent or I’m just a bloke, with an iPhone who works from his back bedroom! I need to wear something that says, we are a professional business, established, reliable and modern but not too flash!

So, I’m afraid it’s back to the suit and tie (or should I be brave and combine that with my trainers?)

For those of you who haven’t got a few minutes to spare (to watch the video) here are a few salient points.

1. Cloud-based, tends to mean that the software or “application” is hosted in a data centre and that users can connect to and use the software via the Internet. (Just like you would when visiting a website)

2. This opens the way, for software vendors to charge for the software on a “pay-as-you-go” basis. So users of the software can effectively “rent” the use of the complete software (as a) service including all required hardware and software. All the customer needs to have is a computer in his office with an Internet connection.

So, that covers the basics – a little more information (if you’ve got time)

At this point people usually ask why? Well if you follow the steps above what you’re effectively doing is outsourcing the delivery of computer resources, so it may be better to ask why not? After all unless you are in the business of setting up and managing computer resources, such as file servers, backup systems, security and anti-virus protocols, then you are probably already outsourcing the delivery of those services, it’s just that your hosting them within your own offices.

Broadband Internet access allows us to connect to remote sites (data centres) quickly and efficiently, furthermore those data centres can “professionally” host, manage and secure file servers, so why bother doing it yourself?

Apart from the fact that these data centres bring a level of expertise to hosting (that you were unlikely to be able to provide yourself) economies of scale mean that they are able to deliver those services to you cheaper than you can obtain them yourself. A process called virtualisation is key in this, basically it allows large file servers to be segmented or split up into smaller manageable portions. You would then connect to one of those portions that was just the right size for your needs. Virtualisation also allows the size of these portions to be increased or decreased as required. The upshot being that you can buy just as much, or just as little computing power as you need and you can be charged accordingly. This outsourcing model really does deliver a better service at a better price!

Security (not a dirty word)

“What about security?” Is the perennial cry. “I can’t outsource my financial accounts” (for example), because I’m worried about security. This is really a concern based on lack of knowledge or fear of the unknown, because in most cases moving an application to The Cloud will substantially increase security, not decrease it. Let’s look at the relevant facts.

1. You will invariably access the application from the same PC or laptop that you use now, from that perspective security will neither increase or decrease, as there will be no change.

2. However your server will be located remotely in a secure data centre, where access will be restricted to authorised staff, rigourously enforced via access control, photo ID, and 24-hour CCTV monitoring. No doubt state-of-the-art fire suppression systems will be installed throughout and invariably data will be automatically backed up and removed from the site on a daily if not hourly basis. Does your server room provide that level of security?

3. Transmission between your PC and your remotely hosted fileserver is encrypted using the same level of security service (https), that is adopted by most banks. Security from this respect is assured.

4. This would leave what could be termed online hostile attack (from a well resourced and expert intruder) as the only remaining threat to be considered. Once again we would urge you to compare how secure your own installation is when compared to that hosted by a professional datacentre where extensive resources are permanently deployed.

After data centres are in the business of securing all their clients’ resources. Anything but the highest levels of security are simply not tolerated.

On Line Banking

We have by now embraced online banking and recognise the benefits that it brings and come to terms with the security processes that we all need to adopt. Secure passwords as a minimum and identity tokens (keypads with unique pin access) where additional security is required. Such systems can be included in access to all “cloud-based” systems, but in most cases common sense around the distribution of usernames and passwords is all that is required.

The Weakest link?

Finally a word on e-mail, for in truth, in terms of security e-mail really is the weakest link. In almost every case e-mail messages are transmitted over the Internet in a completely unencrypted format, leaving such content open to interception, by even the most minimally resourced interloper!

So if you’re worried about security, clamping down on e-mail would be a good place to start. A second might be to move your more sensitive applications to the cloud?

If you’d like to know more about the cloud or talk to us about our own cloud-based services why not call us on the number below, we’d be delighted to hear from you. If you’d like to try out a cloud-based service why not take up the 30 day free trial offer on any of our systems?

Call 0203 369 6491