| May/June 2008 Volume 4, Issue 2 |
IN THIS ISSUEFrom the Board From the Editor:We would like to encourage anyone to submit articles to the ICCA Greater Boston Chapter newsletter. If you know of anyone interested in free publicity, ask them to write an article of any size or topic pertinent to our organization for submission in the next issue of our newsletter. The good news is the smaller the article, the better, since long articles are hard to read on-line. We are very open to ideas and suggestions regarding article topics in all sections of the newsletter, including: Submit ideas or articles to:Song Han Next Deadline:June 21, 2008 for the July/August Issue Board of Directors:PresidentRobert Goodearl Vice President and Secretary Michael Kibler Treasurer James Connell Past President Norman Daoust Click for Board contact info |
Come to the May 27th meeting to hear our feature article author speak on "Speed of Life Organizing: Creating and enhancing office organization systems that work". You'll have the opportunity to meet and speak with folks who provide a diverse array of services as consultants, as well as small business leaders who come because they're interested in the speaker's topic. You'll be glad you did! Bob Goodearl Feature Article I’ll get to it someday…Are you something of a procrastinator? Most of us are, and often it’s because the demands of a busy consulting career, not to mention family and personal obligations, leave us lurching madly from one deadline to the next. I tend to push the limits of many deadlines whether self-imposed or handed down by someone else. A client of mine noticed his tendency to procrastinate is coupled with a certain feeling of excitement about doing things at the last minute and coming out a hero. The “rush” of having to operate on high gear for a brief time to complete a given job can be pretty exhilarating, but it’s also pretty exhausting. When the adrenalin wears off, you’re still faced with an office and calendar full of tasks that need completing and deadlines that are looming. Procrastination is amplified by disorganization. If you can’t easily put your hands on all the materials you need to assemble that lecture using older versions, than you’ll put off the actual job of preparing it, because the effort to get going is too daunting. Keeping your files managed and up to date may seem like a low priority task. If you add up all the time you waste looking for things, however, you might decide a little upfront effort on filing has a substantial payoff. The most-quoted figure is that the average executive loses up to an hour a day looking for items he can’t find or recreating work that’s gone missing. That adds up to a lot of lost productivity. One common recommendation for overcoming procrastination is
to break any big task into a series of smaller ones, and to
make sure you schedule time for the smaller tasks. That
always sounds like perfectly good advice, but I’m as guilty
as the next person of not taking it. (See paragraph one
about life getting in the way!) So here are a few tricks I
use on myself, to overcome my tendency to wait until the
last minute, and then suffer the stressful feelings that
ensue: There’s no magic pill you can take to cure procrastination. You can, however, put attention into the little tasks that you tend to put off and see if you can get them to be more routine. Once basic things like filing, processing your in-box, invoicing clients and updating your QuickBooks records are happening as a matter of course you’ll have more success in carving out time for larger, more important tasks. You’ll have to give up the adrenalin rush you gain from those last-minute saves, though! Want more information? More about why we procrastinate: Procrastinating about the “big stuff”: A different take on it: when procrastination is good: Maxine Gautier Out from Under Professional Organizing Maxine will be presenting "Speed of Life Organizing: Creating and enhancing office organization systems that work" at ICCA Boston Chapter's meeting on May 27, 2008. Toolkit for Consultants Using Wikis in the Sales ProcessWhat’s a Wiki? Why Use a Wiki? Just the Right “Formality” Balance for Early SOW Discussions The wiki is also more formal than simply sending emails back and forth. You’ll actually put a fair amount of effort into getting the content on the wiki polished, at least looking well-presented and thought out, if not entirely accurate in the early stages. Using a wiki in the early stages gives the impression (and accurate impression, I would claim) of world-class consulting, because it is cutting edge collaboration. It’s more polished than simple emails, more “inviting” and fun for clients to collaborate, and also far easier to comprehend the than a thread of emails. Wikis are most helpful when multiple people in the client’s organization review and take an interest in it. Even before the SOW is signed – they’re hooked on your professional style. When to use a Wiki? The less clear your understanding of your client’s problems, the less clear the client’s understanding of their own objective, the more a wiki can help. If you have a “been there, done that” story that matches up exactly with what a client seems to want, you can dispense with the wiki and go straight to using a standard, formal SOW. Once I’ve decided that a wiki is appropriate, I like to introduce it very early in the process. Typically there will be an initial telecon or perhaps on site visit with the client. Somewhere in the initial meeting I make a snap judgment of whether a wiki is appropriate for the given situation, and at that point I generally announce to the client that I’ll present the information as I believe I understand it in a wiki, and provide them access to review and update the information. I have found it to be an excellent way of collaborating with clients on the fuzzier aspects of a planned Statement of Work (SOW). The primary aspect of a wiki that makes it helpful in sales situations is that it provides an excellent way to both collaborate and present information. It puts you in the position as the driver of the requirements gathering process, helping ensure you get good enough requirements to deliver well. Good wikis have built-in, transparent configuration management (CM) functionality as well, providing the capability to review who made what changes, and when. By transparent, I mean that the user just edits what they see on the screen – they don’t “check out” files. The CM functionality of tracking changes is hidden. You can encourage clients to “watch” certain pages on the wiki, so that they (and you) receive emails whenever the wiki is updated by any of the project collaborators. This is an effective means for keeping a negotiation on track. For some reason, when people see an email with an attachment, so many of them think, “I’ll look at it later when I have time.” But when they get a wiki-update notification, with a link to click and see just what’s changed, they’re more apt to immediately review it and provide feedback. Partly because wikis are somewhat new, it’s more like fun using them, while reviewing documents is just too much like work. Once there is sufficient clarity to the definition of the engagement, and once your client/prospect has had a chance to provide feedback, then it’s time to generate a formal SOW that can be attached to a contract, containing all the legalese. Pricing information should be relegated to the SOW, and generally should not appear in the wiki. That info may be reviewed by various people at your client’s organization who may not need to see that information. Requirements for Wikis used in a Sales Context Polished Secure Easy To Use Powerful My Favorite? Beyond the Sales Process By C. Thomas Tyler Highlighting Gloria Metrick and GeoMetrick Enterprises Thank you, Gloria In this issue of InfoXchange, we're highlighting Gloria Metrick, owner of GeoMetrick Enterprises. We thank Gloria for her service to ICCA-Boston as Vice President from March 2007 - March 2008. Gloria's pro-active "pitch-in-and-help" attitude ensured that our organizational events ran smoothly. Gloria also wrote several articles on networking and other topics for this newsletter. Check out the newsletter page of www.icca-boston.org. Gloria earned an undergraduate double-major in Mathematics and Management, an MBA with a technical concentration, and a graduate certificate in Logistics. She began working with laboratory software by chance. In her first permanent job, as the most junior person in her group, she was assigned to a project that required the use of laboratory software. She learned everything she could about the software and made the project a success. GeoMetrick Enterprises In March 1996, Gloria founded GeoMetrick Enterprises to help companies understand and manage their laboratory data. She works primarily with Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), which manage laboratory samples and testing, although she has also worked with manufacturing systems and business systems. Using laboratory software has given Gloria the opportunity to work in both the research and manufacturing quality sides of a variety of industries including food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, biotech, oil, chemicals, and nuclear. Active in ICCA since 1997 Since 1997, Gloria has been an active member of the national ICCA organization, and it is notable that she has attended every national ICCA conference since she joined. Gloria was Chair of the Chapter Presidents' Council, Director on the National Board of Directors, and Secretary of the National Board of Directors, as well as Chair of the National Membership Committee. In addition, she was appointed to the national ICCA Honor Council, which means that she has the honor to serve as an advisor to the National Board of Directors for as long as she is an ICCA member. Having moved several times, Gloria has been involved with several chapters. She served on the founding boards of both the Atlanta and Detroit ICCA chapters and made several attempts to start a Cincinnati chapter. She's held the offices of Vice President, Treasurer, and Director of various chapters, and is Honorary Past President of the Atlanta Chapter. Out on a LIMS: the Newsletter for People Who Risk Life and LIMS on a Daily Basis Gloria occasionally writes articles for magazines, such as Scientific Computing and Laboratory Manager, and gives public talks on her specialty. However, she and GeoMetrick Enterprises are best known for Out on a LIMS: the Newsletter for People Who Risk Life and LIMS on a Daily Basis, which has subscribers from around the world. Representatives of end-users and of every major software vendor in the industry subscribe to the newsletter. Gloria says that, "The success of this newsletter is due to the advice, assistance, and encouragement I've received over the years from other ICCA members. Without that support, this newsletter wouldn't exist, let alone be the success that it's become." Founded in 1976, the Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA) is a national not-for-profit organization of independent computer consulting firms sharing the highest ethical and professional standards. The ICCA Greater Boston Chapter Mission Statement: The ICCA offers great services and benefits to its members including business and health insurance, marketing programs, a National Conference, standard form consulting and subcontracting contracts, and many discount programs. For additional information regarding the ICCA or to search the National Membership Directory, visit the national website http://www.icca.org or the Greater Boston Chapter website http://www.icca-boston.org Legal StuffPublisher: Greater Boston Chapter of the Independent Computer Consultants Association, http://www.icca-boston.org US Mail: ICCA, Greater Boston Chapter |