Did you know that Project Online is more than just project schedules and status reports? Yep, you can manage your project risks there too, and it's pretty easy. Don't miss our monthly PM webinar where we'll talk more about this, details below.

When talking about project risks, oftentimes people will tell me that their project doesn't have any risks. Or they don't want to waste time tracking risks, because the project is a "must do" so it doesn't matter anyway.  I disagree; there are a lot of advantages to tracking project risks, especially in Project Online.

"My project doesn't have any risks." Well, that sure would be nice, but every project has some risks associated with it. Let's take a simple example - moving your offices. Your company has relocated and you are managing the project for the move. What are some risks we should consider?

Read more here!

Deals on various Microsoft products expire on June 30th!

Microsoft's fiscal year ends on June 30th.  Because of this, Microsoft always has promotions and deals for their licensing that expires on June 30th.  This year is no exception.

Offers on:

• Office 365
• Project Online
• Microsoft Azure
• Microsoft Licensing
• Migration Costs
• Open Value Subscription
• Software Assurance

These offers differ from product line to product line, but they usually end up somewhere between 10-30% off what you would pay throughout the rest of the year.  And many of these offers are limited to only if you purchase the product through a Microsoft Partner (that would be someone like us).

Also, Microsoft has quietly announced that some products will actually see a price increase after June 30th.

Read more here!

Lync is now Skype for Business!

If you're a Lync user, you may have noticed a change already - Lync is now Skype for Business! Join us on June 11th (see below to RSVP) for our monthly webinar where we'll talk about Skype for Business and demonstrate some of the collaboration capabilities. We'll be giving away a free copy of Office 2013 to one lucky winner too!

Skype for Business can be used to increase communication and collaboration in a number of different ways:

Voice Calling (VoIP) - Audio calls are easy in Skype, and you don't pay for long distance or airtime. And Skype for Business integrates with your previous contacts from Skype, so you'll have one tool for your business and personal calls.

Video Calls - One-on-one video calls can be much more personal when you can talk face to face, even if it is virtually. With Skype for Business, you can have those discussions and be able to see facial expressions and body language, or just check out your colleague's new haircut.

Video Conferencing - Similar to the one-on-one video calls, but with more than two people. This is great for bringing teams together with a more personal feel. Who's wouldn't prefer to look at their colleague's instead of staring at a conference speakerphone the whole time?

Read more here.

Ask a Business Management person "How's Business?" and you'll probably get an answer that's full of anecdotal terms.  "Not bad," "Great!" and the like.  Of course, if you don't measure it, you can't control or manage it.  With all the metrics that we can measure, it gets easy to be completely overwhelmed.  So it's important to choose what specific metrics make up the majority of the definition of health for the organization (KPI's).  Here's some more information about KPI's.

Although the idea of the project-based ERP system may not be for everybody, consider implementing some methods of measure your KPI's, and keep your eyes on them!

This article excerpt, by Brian Lamee, originally appeared here: http://bit.ly/1DTQ6A5

In today's highly competitive market, accounting firms need a way to compare themselves to their past performance, and that of similar companies, as a barometer of achievement.

Successful firms use a common set of strategic and operational key performance indicators, or KPIs, to accomplish this goal. KPIs can include any number of metrics useful to your firm, including billings by client, revenue growth, contribution rate, utilization rate, realization, deal close ratio, customer lifetime value and more.

But the effectiveness of your chosen KPIs depends on your firm's ability to capture and access related data.

Can you easily access project-specific metrics like days sales outstanding and project schedule variance?

Are you able to quickly view how much billable work remains incomplete? And do you know how much time passes between invoicing and payment?

In a word, you need insight. Enterprise resource planning software can help.

The Road to Character, by David Brooks

Ok, here's my second book review.  Last month I described a book about the Treaty of Versailles.  This month I switched over to a book I first heard about on Fareed Zakaria's GPS show back in April.

The concept is an interesting one.  Brooks talks about our fixation on what he calls our "resume virtues."  These are things that help us on the wallet side of things.  Better jobs, more money and additional status.  But we tend to ignore what he calls our "eulogy virtues."  These are the attributes that form a more inner character.  Kindness, honesty and the like.

The first chapter is a great introduction to Brooks' core concepts.  He describes some of the changes that he sees in terms of American Society since the 40's.  The priority was more on belonging, contributing to society and the like.

To be clear, Brooks is not saying they were better.