Since I also achieved the PMP certification several years ago, the CBAP process was quite enlightening. IIBA seems to be where PMI was 20 years ago. They’re just getting their methodology fully defined, just getting the kinks worked out of the exam and application process, and just breaking through as a “required” certification for professionals in the field.

To me, the certifications are not terribly valuable by themselves. Sure, they get added to the resume, the website, LinkedIn, etc., and they might one day help get my name through the initial HR screeners for some positions. But I’ve been doing BA and PM work for long enough to know that the real world does not generally operate as the academic structures of the two methodologies suggest.

So why did I bother subjecting myself to the ridiculous application and testing process required to get the CBAP certification?

When people want to know what I do, I most often tell them I’m a project manager / business analyst with some technical skills in database development and business intelligence.  Simply put, when you are an IT practitioner working for small to mid-size businesses in Montana, project management and business analysis are very complementary skills. In this market, companies don’t usually hire distinct project managers or business analysts. In my experience, if a company is big enough to start hiring an IT staff, they go first for networking and desktop support and then they hire will programming skills. They’ll usually hire several people with technical skills well before they ever hire someone who thinks about the business side of IT. By then, they’ve had a number of problematic experiences where their IT staff (however talented they may be) has failed to deliver in a number of key areas.

I work with these companies. They need people who can understand their business, translate their business requirements into technical terminology, and then procure (if necessary) and manage the technical resources to get the job done.

That’s my niche.

The PMP and CBAP certifications designate me as someone who designs, builds and delivers high quality IT solutions. They don’t prove I can do it, but the successes I’ve had with my clients and employers over the years do.

To start a remote support session, you simply login to your account on the Copilot website and enter the person’s email address. Then you click a button to install a little application and the other person clicks the link in their email. Within seconds you are viewing their desktop and able to work on their machine just like you were there.

I don’t generally do desktop support so I’ve signed up for the pay-as-you-go plan. This only costs me $0.25 per minute. There are also unlimited use plans starting at $19.95/month. Those plans allow you to setup computers you might regularly access with one-click access so you don’t have to get a new access code every time.If you ever need to access remote computer, I’d highly recommend giving Copilot a try.

As you know, I’m a fan of Microsoft products. There are tons of Vista detractors out there, and the “horror stories” of incompatible printers and other devices are well publicized. These complaints usually come from Apple and Linux fans that like to think their preferred platforms are the best. But while Microsoft has to build software that everyone can use and for which any vendor can provide hardware, the reality is that Apple and Linux can’t (or choose not to) live up to that mission.

So since last Monday, I’ve been using Microsoft’s Windows Vista Business. And I have to say that I honestly don’t know what people are so up in arms about. My machine operates much faster under Vista, and I like most parts of the new interface. The sidebar is nice, but not really a game changer. I do like how it’s there on the main screen instead of hiding like Apple’s version does. The one piece of software I had that was designed pre-Vista (QuickBooks) runs just fine in compatibility mode.

I have had a few problems:

• The backup and restore wizard is poor. Vista only allows you to select types of files to backup, not specific locations. So I’m using the software that comes with my external hard drive to backup only those files that I don’t have redirected to my server.
• My remote desktop connection to one client was REALLY slow. Here’s a great explanation of the problem and the fix.
• Symantec’s pcAnywhere 12.0 wouldn’t install on Vista. Kudos to Symantec for not only getting me the version 12.1 with no hassle at all, but following up a few days later to make sure it was running ok.

And there are a few annoyances:

• User account control was distracting. Prompting me two times every time I do some type of file operation is a little retarded. I’ve turned that off.
• There is now a Contacts folder as part of the user profile. It’s meant to be used with the new Windows Mail client (previously Outlook Express). But there’s no integration with Outlook so it’s just an extra empty folder.
• The new Windows Explorer doesn’t have an “up folder” navigation button.

Overall, nothing to really be alarmed about. Given the improved performance I get while working all day, I’m actually happy I did the upgrade.

Here’s the rub with Symphony and the other MS Office alternatives.  Microsoft Office reached dominance not because of the functions that your average user cares about and that every basic office suite does well.  The tools were widely adopted because introductory level developers (like me) were able to quickly build department level applications that helped improve staff productivity.  In the absence of any real developer tools, I don’t believe Lotus Symphony or any other MS Office alternative has a shot at being anything more than a niche product.

I hate that I didn’t do a decent evaluation of the Lotus tools.  But the reality is that I spend my time working with tools that fit the environments my clients have in place.  As long as organizations have one person who has gone past the basic data entry functions of Excel, I will never convince them that an Office alternative will work for them.  And if they’re so small that they don’t have a serious investment in MS Office, why would I ever recommend they start out using tools that can’t be extended as their needs grow?

And after I learned that one of my other clients used Timeforce as well, I figured that signing the agreement would do two things:

• Improve the level of service I was providing my clients, and
• Open up another line of revenue for my growing consulting business.

However, in considering the agreement I forgot that the main mission of a reseller is to expand the vendor’s sales reach. There’s no way for a reseller to provide a greater level of support than the vendor. You can be more responsive to the client, and you can use the tools that the vendor provides to move support closer to the client. But you can’t support their product better than they can. And if the vendor chooses to focus on sales over client support, then there’s not much a reseller can do.

I recommend that any business in need of a time management system evaluate Timeforce. There are certain company types for whom Timeforce is definitely not a great solution. So I’d be happy to assist you in your evaluation.

But as often happens with lower cost products, Qqest has to focus on new sales in order to grow. Any reseller whose core business is reselling Timeforce will be in a similar situation, since they only receive a percentage of the sale. Understand this going in, and you will likely be very pleased with your experience.

Anyway, I don’t think open source alternatives to MS Office will ever be viable until someone puts millions of dollars into refining the software over 3 or 4 major versions.  So when I heard that IBM had released a version of Open Office, I figured I should try it out.  They’ve got the ability to dedicate this type of commitment if they really want to.

Lotus Symphony consists of the basic modules everyone needs – Spreadsheets (i.e., MS Excel), Documents (i.e., MS Word) and Presentations (i.e., MS PowerPoint).

I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the software downloaded and installed.  I don’t have an exact timing, but I seem to recall my last MS Office installation taking over an hour to install.  Of course, that was MS Office 2007 Enterprise which also installed Access, InfoPath, Outlook and Publisher.  In retrospect, I guess I should have expected the trimmed down offering from IBM to install much more quickly.

The interface looks ok.  It’s certainly not familiar like MS Office.  In the end, this may be the one thing that dooms all open office suites.  But I got used to the new MS Office ribbon, and I’m sure I can get used to Symphony’s toolbars.

I’m really going to try to use Symphony over the coming weeks.  I’m going to try to keep an open mind and work with the product as exclusively as I can.  I readily admit that I’ll be fighting my own biases.  For example, I’ve already got a couple gripes:

• I can’t open the MS Word template that I use for my business correspondence,
• Spreadsheets doesn’t highlight a copy area,
• There’s an extra menu layer with only one option when you select File > Open,
• You can’t connect Spreadsheets to an ODBC data source to pull data into a file from a database.

I’ll let you know what else I find.  I’m pulling for Symphony.  I really am.  I’d love to be able to recommend a free office suite that handles all the basic functions an SMB needs.  We’ll see if Symphony is up to the task.

Last week, I posted a notes about the release of SAP Business ByDesign. There are only a few vendors that offer an on-demand ERP product that includes everything from your standard accounting functions through inventory and customer management. SAP joins NetSuite and Salesboom in this regard. But even SAP targets businesses with more than 100 employees.

NetBooks is specifically focused on product based (as opposed to service based) businesses under 50 employees. The recorded demo shows a complete “call to cash” process. A sales order is created directly from the customer contact screen, and a shipping request is automatically created. Viewing the shipping request in an open orders view, the user is alerted that there is not enough inventory on hand. You change the request to a partial shipment and the system generates another shipping request for the remaining amount. An invoice is created, and payments are easily applied to receivables when collected.

Two areas lacking include integration with a web store and with point of sale systems. Both are only possible today in a manual fashion, although the company says automated integration is slated for a future release. I also don’t see any mention of payroll on the website. But, if you’ve read any of my prior posts, you’ll probably guess that I favor outsourcing your payroll responsibilities.

Pricing is right at $200/month for 5 users with additional users costing only $20. Your external accountant or bookkeeper gets free access to your data. And all your data is stored securely on the company’s servers so you don’t need to worry about installing and maintaining the software on your own servers.

This looks like a great development for small businesses.

p.s. – The company’s founder, Ridgely Evers, runs a blog. His recent “Where’s Your Weakest Link” post is a great corollary to my “16 Ways to Prepare for Technology Failure”.

For the past couple weeks, as I came across ideas for potential blog posts, I would create a draft message in Outlook. When I got around to writing the actual post, I’d write the post like I was writing an email. When I was satisfied, I’d copy and paste the content into my WordPress administrator panel and then publish the post. Several times I forgot to add in the title or categorize the post.

Well, in the course of my Stumbling last night, I ran across Windows Live Writer. I had no idea that there was software that was designed specifically for writing blogs! I wrote my earlier post using the tool and it was so slick that I doubt I’ll ever go back to Outlook.

To be fair, there are many applications out there that target this niche. A quick Google search brought me to this list posted by McKenzie.

I wish I’d figured this out earlier. Come to think of it, this must be how my client’s feel when we uncover stuff they own but aren’t using.

Currently, NetSuite seems to be the leading the way in the hosted ERP industry. Microsoft has a hosted Dynamics GP option. And SalesBoom has an intriguing solution although I have to admit that my knowledge of it extends only to what I’ve read on their website and found through other Google searches.

So I was eager to learn more about this service which is dubbed SAP Business ByDesign. The SAP website is very sparse. And I hate registering on a site just to receive marketing material, so I haven’t gotten in too deep. But I saw these two questions in the FAQ document:

15. How much does SAP Business ByDesign cost?
SAP Business ByDesign will be offered on a subscription basis, priced per user per month for the specific capabilities being utilized. Pricing starts at US$149 per user per month in the United States and China or €133 per user per month in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.

16. What is the minimum and maximum number of users for an SAP Business ByDesign installation?
We expect the typical SAP Business ByDesign customer to have between 100 and 500 employees. There is no maximum user limit; however, a minimum of 25 users must be licensed.

The $150/user/month seems like a reasonable base price point. But the 25 license minimum? I have a real hard time picturing a 100 employee company spending $45,000 per year on this software.