I’ve been a telecommuter for 15 years if you define a teleworker as someone that works at home or on the road at least one day per month. And now I do it about 10 days a month, but I call it e-Consulting. I remember having a Wyse 60 dumb terminal at home and a 300 baud modem dialing into an old Altos Unix system. Those were the days my friend.

Your Place or Mine? is an article in CFO magazine citing cost savings, issues, and problems with telecommuting. Although numbers of teleworkers have not exploded, as predicted after 9/11, it is still a trend that has more good than bad.

The entire 700-person reservations staff of JetBlue Airways works from home, using computers and phone systems supplied by the company. Special software tracks productivity and shows that agents spend 95 out of every 100 minutes fielding calls. The software also monitors the duration of each call and even tracks who hangs up first, agent or customer, giving managers plenty of data to identify problems.

It’s A Blog World After All, an article in this month’s Fast Company, has many examples of how blogs are helping companies.

Blogs were once the domain of angst-ridden teens and doomed presidential candidates. But the likes of Verizon, IBM, Microsoft, and Dr. Pepper are all climbing on the blogwagon. Turns out, Web logs are a nifty knowledge-management tool. And companies also see them as a promising medium for advertising (naturally).

Business blogs have yet to sweep big corporate America, but it is helping small business in marketing, customer support and content/knowledge management. And we all saw what blogging did for Howard Dean. If he had some punch behind his words, he may have blogged his way to the White House. If nothing else, it brought money to his campaign.

Besides this blog and my personal blog, I create a blog for any project lasting more than several weeks. It’s a way to exchange information and have a shared record of thoughts and ideas. It would be a mistake to not explore blogs for your business. It is and will be a significant employee and customer relationship tool.

Businesses are set to spend more money than ever according to Quantit Economic Group. Yes, that’s even more than the great 1996 through 2000 “inflate the bubble” era. The forecast exceeds the half-trillion-dollar level for the first time. Some real pent up demand ready to explode after 3 years of just making do.

But companies are showing profits and they do need to stay competitive. A full 70% of companies say they are investing in IT to maintain competitiveness rather than to get ahead. So it’s time to review your IT strategy just to keep up.

Remember a few weeks ago when I ranted about Paper PMP’s? Well I received in the mail today a 14-page advertisement that claims:

“You’re learning in a few hours what it took a successful project management professional over 38 years to learn!”

Yes that’s right. In a 15-hour home study course I could get a career’s worth of learning. Damn! Why did I waste all that schoolin’ time? But then again, a mere child could never pick up

“A thick, 4.5 pound, jam-packed, 415 page reference manual”

Makes your dreams and goals seem worthless since you can just look up what the next 40 years of your career is going to bring.

I haven’t seen nor read this manual, nor have I listened to the accompanying 16 CD’s. I’m sure it is comprehensive and provides plenty of information. For $1,100.00 it better! I guess I’m disheartened by the claims and the marketing effort. Do you really think reading a manual and listening to seminars will bring you up to par with someone who’s worked at it for 38 years? C’mon now, will I really

“discover how to increase my income, get the respect I deserve and control my destiny?”

Isn’t that laying it on a little thick? Even thicker than the manual itself? What you’re really paying for is

“Learn the secrets of how to pass the PMP exam with ease on your very first try. 94% of the students pass the very first time they take it!”

Here’s another claim that sounds hockey:

“This offer is going out to 4,842 people but only 64 copies of the course are available at this special price.”

Boy pity those 6% who failed. But, with a 365 day money-back guarantee, maybe they got their $1,100 back to pay for the $500 failed exam.

[Warning-Acronyms ahead] For all you CTOs, CIOs, and other CsomethingOs wondering about TCO and ROI of OS systems, here is the first “independent study” pitting the two operating systems.

And Windows still wins in the TCO contest! I always took the reports funded by Microsoft with a grain of salt. I mean why would you sponsor anything that came up with a negative report on yourself. Or from the perspective of the researchers and analysts, why look a gift horse in the mouth? If they’re paying me, I don’t say anything bad. So I was feeling pretty good about this report, not that I favor one OS over another, but that we finally got some independent thinking. And then I re-read the report.

The report states “independent” because no funding came from Microsoft. But there was a co-sponsor - Sunbelt Software - a major developer of Microsoft based tools and add-ons.

So I’m not sure of these results either. It’s still sponsored by MS through proxy. Why won’t some agency, completely independent, with no co-sponsors, do an analysis? Are they afraid of the wrath of the MS gods? Maybe Consumer Reports should take this on.

Changing a company’s accounting system is one of the biggest decisions and investments a company can make. It’s vital that your company considers the bigger picture, knowing exactly what it is hoping to achieve with the software. Which solution is right for you? In the business software industry, there are many companies promising the world, but can they all offer the solution that is right for your company?

Choosing software can be confusing, so we put together a brief guide to choosing the right software package, and ensuring it meets your needs. 20 Secrets of Software Selection is a PDF whitepaper that quickly lists concerns and ideas you need to know when choosing software, being it accounting, ERP, document management, CRM or anything in between.

19. Don’t try to automate when the current system is in chaos. Many companies assume that they can solve their software problems simply by bringing in a new system. This will only add to the confusion. Don’t even think about getting a new system until the one you have is working smoothly.

I don’t want to say how many botched projects we’ve walked into and had to restructure, but IT has a larger than average instance of failed projects. But I digress. That’s another rant

Yes it was one year ago today that I wrote the first entry in this blog. And in the eight months that followed I added another 5 or 6 entries, not really getting regular at writing until December. I also changed my blogging software 3 times. (I’m using Movable Type now). I was more concerned about learning about this whole blog thing, reading many genres and practicing internally. But then I ran into more and more business blogs and saw how daily commentary was being read more than monthly or quarterly newsletters.

Blogs are getting much more mainstream attention from press and TV, and large companies are paying attention too. It seems if you want to work at Microsoft, you better be a blogger.

So it’s been a good year. I’ve enjoyed blogging so much that I started a personal blog also. Now I’m tracking my personal stream of consciousness as well as my business thoughts. I hope you have enjoyed reading and learning along the way. Stick around, there’s much more to come.

The latest issue of The Value Manager newsletter is now online. The Value Manager is the predecessor to this blog. Most of the information in the newsletter is now derived from the blog, but there are some readers of VM that do not visit the blog, and vice versa. As I state in the newsletter this is now redundant, but both serve a purpose and I’ll continue to publish both. If you haven’t answered the survey yet, I sure could use your help.

I just finished giving a 2-day seminar on Project Management Methodologies for Service Organizations. It’s a customized presentation that I tailor to the client’s needs. The company wanted to get their engineers into a PM frame of mind. There were 6 systems engineers who were making the move into project management.

I enjoyed it because the engineers were active, interested and very inquisitive. When it was all said and done, one of the engineers asks, “So, can you summarize what I’m supposed to take away with me today?” We had gone through quite a lot of details, so I thought I’d cast a wide net and came up with a Top-5 list:

• First and foremost, if your strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the project proves successful. No doubt about it, not everything runs smoothly or as planned. Be ready to change your tactics when striving for your goal.
• Second and third, communicate and communicate again. OK, so I cheated. This one takes up two spaces on my 5 item list because it is so important. Communication can take place many ways including face-to-face, by phone, fax, email, or meetings. It is important to know that 90% of a PM’s time is spent communicating!
• Fourth, don’t wait until the end of the project to review the lessons learned. While every project will have a “post mortem” analysis, a great PM will review and learn from every tactical move performed during the project. The lessons learned will then be used in the next task.
• And finally, keep a cool head. Missed deadlines, out-of-control budgets, employee turnover and stakeholder scrutiny; It can be difficult to get the feelings of “impending doom” out of your head. It’s natural with the PM’s level of exposure to feel like your nerves are being tested; to wonder how you’re going to handle your own anxieties. Remember the project’s goal and continue to work towards that goal.

I’m keeping track of how many project managers get fired versus team members. The score after 10 weeks: 4 PM’s vs. 6 team members. With only 6 potential Trump executives left, I believe we are seeing the influence of personalities play a much larger role in who gets fired. Check my previous comments and the official Apprentice recap site.

Open casting calls for The Apprentice 2 begin this week around the country. For northeast Ohio they are holding interviews at the Cleveland NBC affiliate, WKYC-TV3, on Saturday, March 27th at 9AM. Here’s the application rules and requirements. You won’t have to go through a physical and psychoanalysis until you are a semi-finalist.