Do you know your software key code?

Several incidents at client offices over the last few months have highlighted an issue that has cost my clients dearly - the loss or misplacement of key codes for Microsoft Office products.

My experience is that most users just accept the presence of the MS Office suite on their PC, as it typically comes pre-installed on the PC from purchase. Consequently, the CDs that actually contain the installation files and the license key codes are neglected and lost.

The problem comes when we have an integration issue with MSOffice (API dll files are often damaged or missing) and a 3rd party product (such as Worldox), where we have to repair the Office installation. This will require the original installation CDs for that particular flavour of MS Office. As MS Office is offered in a myriad a of different suites, it is impractical for us to carry the complete catalog of MSOffice CS, we request the installation disks from the client - only to find out that the CDs can not be located!

Similarly, and much more serious, we sometimes have to uninstall and reinstall MSOffice completely and will need the product keys for MSOffice - which is located on the back of the CD case. We have had cases where clients who claimed that owned the product having to go out and buy another copy simply becuase they could not located the CDs and key codes. This is a waste of hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars.

To avoid this unecessary issue, I would suggest that you make sure that all CDs are stored in a safe (and known location), and that you pr0actively record the product keys for MSOffice on your PCs (and all other installed products for that matter). This can be accomplished for free using the personal auditing software from Belarc.

Called the Belarc Advisor, this downloadable utility will analyse the hardware and software installed on your system, and even provide your with the license key codes for all your applications. Simply print out this report and store it with those CDs...you'll have prrof of ownership and piece of mind...and make my job so much easier!

You can download Belarc Advisor here.

Gross Misuse of Powerpoint (and other applications)

Last year I found myself in a meeting with a VOIP Telephony Provider and was stunned when the sales engineer displayed a diagram of the Voice Mail system using, of all products Microsoft Publisher.

My colleagues and I found ourselves giggling at the cartoon-ish graphics and "word art" that this Call Routing Flowchart were drawn with. In a single moment, we had lost techno-respect in this engineer and his misuse of technology (using Vizio, PowerPoint or even just MS Publisher in a Preview mode would have worked far better). A professional in his position should know better.

Several months ago, I received and invitation to a golf tournament, sent to me as an Excel spreadsheet attached to an email. The entire text of the event was inserted into one big cell. The sender is not the most sophisticated user, but now they had broadcast that fact to over 100 people.

These experiences were brought back to me when I attended a Parent Orientation night at my daughter's middle school last week. A teacher from each of her classes was to spend 10 minutes giving parents an overview of the student requirements and expectations for the year ahead. Being a somewhat modern school equipped with digital projectors and screens, most teachers made use of PowerPoint to assist with their presentations - and the results varied in hilarity.

I recall the Chorus teach showing us a PowerPoint in full edit mode, and click on the slide thumbnails to display each slide. She would then add text to the slides as she deemed necessary. Together, we witnessed the creation process of her presentation. Other teachers used fonts that were far too small or impossibly large. How about a yellow background with white text? My eyes were in agony just trying to focus on that one.

My personal favorite, was the PowerPoint where the teacher simply read out loud the slab of text on each slide…without even looking at the audience (perhaps this was apt as it was her Reading class teacher).

My daughter explained that a large proportion of their classes are taught using PowerPoint, which done correctly can be of enormous benefit, providing the teacher abides by the idea that PowerPoint is best used to highlight important points on a subject - and not to be the subject of the presentation

Now, I don’t want to come across as a techno-snob, but I would strongly urge all users of productivity applications (Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Presentations) should as a minimum know when to use and when not to use an application.

I've said it so many times…nobody is above TRAINING!

I Love My New Wetsuit

I have just spent 3 days surfing along the Great Ocean Road in Southern Victoria - smack dab in the middle of winter. The water temperature was about 9 degrees with a whistling wind blowing straight in from Antarctica - quite a challenge for me considering the amount of time I spend in Florida where the ambient water temperature right now is in the high 20s.

I had decided that it was time to replace my aging Rip Curl wetsuit - a colorful affair that was once popular in the early eighties, which tends to clash heavily with the all-black wetsuits that dominate any line up these days. Indeed, so garish was my suit that my mates had labeled me "The Wasp", in honor of the bright banded yellow panels on my suit that were the source of much jocularity when there was a lull in the swell out the back.

I have to admit, that trying to squeeze into the same suit that I purchased not long after my 21st birthday was becoming a bit of a task to say the least! Not to mention that it was so tight across my shoulders that I could barely lower my arms to the side. Also, the suit was only 3mm think, and had lost a lot of it's elasticity.

So I bit the bullet, and picked up a 4mm Billabong steamer, complete with 3mm booties and a 3mm hood - all for under $400 (many thanks to Strappers Surf Shop in Torquay - great service and better prices that the actual factory outlets right across the road).

Just 45 minutes later, I arrived at Urquhart's Bluff - confronted with sloppy 1 meter conditions - a constant battering break that would mean a long hard slog to get out the back - and underneath those cold grey skies that are synonymous with the "Surf Coast".

So excited was I to be in home waters again, that I pulled on my new rubber ensemble, without even removing the paper stuffing from the toes of my booties - a fact that I did not notice until removing them hours later. But, the difference was amazing - I was totally isolated from those frigid waters, with the wetsuit adequately insulating that layer of water that had seeped in.

As mentioned, I was in that water for a couple of hours, and would have stayed much longer with adequate light. I was amazed at he flexibility of the new neoprene suites - absolutely no hindrance across the shoulders when paddling, and the booties provided amazing grip and feel when riding the board.

After 20 years, I have finally updated to a new wetsuit, and can now stay out back as long as I want, no longer suffering from stage 1 hypothermia within 30 minutes.

The only problem now is that my new wettie is black like all the others!

More Email Faux Pas

My inbox is like yours…it is inundated with messaging faux pas. So much so that perhaps the time has come for firms to conduct compulsory training (and re-training) for all staff on the correct use of email in a business environment!

I am not talking about those annoying things like CAPITALISING the entire email message or placing a ":)" after a thousand word flaming rant - in fact it is not even the content that bothers me in most cases, it is simply the way the email is addressed.

As an example, suppose I receive and email, where my name and the name of another individual are in the "TO" field, and the email request support or clarification on a particular issue. Who should respond?

This type of email message drives me nuts, as it then forces me to contact the other "Addressee" and coordinate our response. Or perhaps, we are too busy to contact each other, and instead assume that the other will respond. The only way this message would be acceptable would be if it began with “Hi Greg & John….can either if you…”.

This leads me to a second item that I wish people would heed…the greeting. I was once guilty of this, but have since reformed my ways. I speak of beginning your email with a little courtesy phrase like “Hi Greg” or “G’day Greg”. Look, I know it’s email and therefore a more informal medium than letter mail, but unless it is an internal email, I would always start my email with a greeting because it reaffirms who the request or declaration in the content is being made to, and therefore who is being held accountable for a response.

The next issue I face is the “CC”, which is already well documented as a heavily misused feature. As somebody that can vaguely recall what an actual carbon copy of a hand typed memo looks like, I can explain it’s original intent was to circulate around a document so that others were aware of a communiqué, but were not actually active participants in the document (i.e. a memo declaring that hats should not be worn inside the building would be sent to the HR department, and CC’ed to the department heads who would then pin it up on the bulletin board).

The key here is that the CC’ed field is really for general for viewing purposes only, but still allows somebody to “chime in” with an idea. In my line of work, if I am CC’ed on an email message, I will not actively participate in the email thread unless there is an item that is blatantly incorrect or disagreeable to me.

Related to this, is to receive an email where I am the named recipient, and there is also a large number of CC’ed addresses – many that I don’t even recognize. I am a firm believer in only involving the "front line troops" in field tactics, and let the generals talk strategy separately. I often reply only to the Sender only, this allowing them to forward my communiqué to any parties with a vested interest.

Lastly, my rule of thumb is to avoid any vagueness in my emails….I iron out at issue and then finish with a directive that let's the Recipient know what that I am expecting an reply. “Let me know” is unambiguous, yet still informal, and is perfect for the closing remark on an email message.

For more of the unsung etiquette when using email, check out http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm

Why Do You Tolerate Your Slow PC?

Implementing software systems for other companies frequently necessitates me spending time sitting at other people's desks and trying to debug an application, or develop a work process.

I have come to dread this part of my job - not for the challenges it presents, but because of the slow workstations I seem to get stuck at. I am keeping a rough tally in my head these days, and I am estimating that 25 percent of the computers I get to sit in front of are either invested with crap-ware or just plain underpowered and overwhelmed with modern applications.

Although I keep myself calmly composed, I am usually seething inside - because of instead of actually working on a problem -I am instead relegated to watching a windows OS slowly load, or waiting 30 sends between each letter typed or mouse click.

It bugs the hell out of me....how can somebody accept this on a daily basis? How much productivity is lost, or money expended try to chase down a solution? Do these users think that they deserve to have sub-standard tools?

A computer is the primary tool for any professional....it should be powered accordingly. 4GB RAM...2.4GHtz Processor - end of story. The productivity gains from a fast computer are mindblowing - not to mention the release of stress from banging your head against the keyboard.

A decent computer will cost about A$1500 (Dell Optiplex 360 ) without software and installation. If you figure that reboots, hangs and slow response lose an employee just 2 hours a week (lol...that is WAY under the productivity loss your would get - espeically if you consider that crap computers generally prohibit any multi tasking), you will have lost the value in of a new workstation in just over 6 months (based on a staff salary of $50k).

Then consider, for the next 3 years after that (the ideal retirement age of a computer is 36 months), you will be extracting an extra $9,000 worth of productivty from your user.

Of course, I also frequently see the situation where a user acknowledges that their PC should be a boat anchor, but they do nothing about it because they either don't want to cause a stir or believe that nothing will be fixed anyway. What better time than to show your appreciation to an employee than to present them with a new PC. Perhaps use new PC's as a incentive program, or even (god forbid) use them for Christmas Bonuses!

Until this happens, I will continue to spend 25% of the time at other peoples desks admiring their vacation photos and guessing what types of food products are wedged in their keyboards....instead of actually being productive.

Key Criteria For A Document Management System

In the course of my career as a software consultant, I have spoken with literally thousands of legal professionals, from all different sizes of firms, and representing all different areas of practice. They approach me with one common goal: to get control of their bloody documents!
Whether represented by the piles of paper teetering on desks or in hallways around the office, or the brittle yellowing paper uselessly located at some offsite storage facility - or more often, the thousands of word processor documents chaotically filed on the firm's computer network. You need control of all this-and that’s where Worldox comes in.
They want control over these documents - to have them at their fingertips, for reference, searching, editing or copying. Documents are the tangible product of the firm, and are second only to the employees in their importance to the office.
Enter the Document Management System (DMS), loosely defined as a "computer system used to track and store electronic documents and images." Other industries call them CMS, ECM and Records Management Systems, but it's within the legal profession that we have truly realized the potential of these systems.
Based on my experiences, and those of my Affinity colleagues, there are certain features in a DMS that have become "must haves" for any firm: • Document Production: It must integrate with the user's desktop applications (MS Word, Word Perfect, Adobe Acrobat); • Email: the DMS must be able to save email messages into its system, and integrate with popular email clients (MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, GroupWise) ; • Scanning: It must interface with desktop and network scanning systems, and provide a paperless routing system of imaged documents; • Storage: store the documents in a safe and accessible location that is easy to backup or restore in the case of a disaster; • Searching: provide indexed searching of documents by matter, name or content; • Security: It must incorporate a security system that will lock down forms or remove user access to privileged documents; • Collaboration Features: Contain collaboration features that allow users to bundle documents together and create virtual links between documents; • Document Lifecycle: Offer document evolution features like versioning and archiving; and • Forced Compliance: Force all of the firm documents to be incorporated into its system - do not allow users to defeat the system by working outside its control.
If you search online, you will find hundreds of Document Management Systems offering to help you leverage the documents and images in your firm. But be warned, a large portion of these systems are merely online storage systems where you voluntarily upload documents to their storage servers. Indeed, of all the products competing in this category, there are currently only 3 that offer the "must have" features detailed above: Worldox, Autonomy and OpenText.
Only one of those is specifically targeted to the budgets and technology typically seen in small to mid-sized law offices, which is why OzDox uses the Worldox platform as the basis for our DM Systems.

Technology Support In The Office - A Cost of Being In Business

I was on a telephone call last month with a firm's technology committee, discussing their exorbitant IT costs over the proceeding 12 months, when the simple question was raised, "How much should we expect to pay for information technology support"?

Obviously, the answer is going to be based on many factors - the level of sophistication of hardware and software in the office, age of equipment, the technical aptitude of each user, etc.

This particular firm employs 17 lawyers, with a total work force of 28, and last fiscal year had paid their outsourced IT company ~$27k to support their infrastructure (note that we are not discussing hardware or software purchases, just support for their existing systems).

I'm sure the committee wanted me to tell them that they were spending excessively...as judged by the silence I was met with when I told them that they were getting and absolute bargain!

You see, one of the pleasures of my job is that I get to visit with a large number of firms, of varying sizes and types. One observation is universally true - there is always some level of frustration with technology in every office. Most firms with over 20 staff have a dedicated IT support person - and add an extra support person every 20 additional users. Anything less, and that level of frustration in the office grows exponentially, as does the under-use and waste of existing technology investments.

As many firms have found out, the turnover for IT support staff is very high, and so to keep some continuity in the IT support area, most turn to outside IT companies to provide them with support.

Annual remuneration for good quality outsourced support will generally be in line with the equivalent salary costs of in-house support, with the benefit that you are typically dealing with a company that has experts in many different areas to assist you (networking, internet access, workstation support, legal software, remote access). This also gives you the "One Throat To Choke" efficiency when things wrong.

Based on this model, the aforementioned firm should be budgeting on $50k - $75k per annum just for technical support, and that does not include purchases!

The productivity that modern technology offers just the average small firm these days would have been unimaginable just 20 years ago....and gives the firm the opportunity to "punch well above it's weight class".

As for the different types of support models, I'll leave that for another day.