Question: As an IT Consultant with people already working as many hours as they can, how can I make more money without adding overhead or needing to find new clients?

Answer: The short answer is -bill faster.

Most IT Consulting shops have thousands of dollars of free cash bottled-up in unbilled time.  The problem is either:

• Technicians have been on-site, done the work but haven’t reported their time or
• Their time has been entered but it takes a long time for someone to re-key that time in Quickbooks or another accounting package so that it can be billed to the client.

As a recent case study from Network Consulting Services shows, Vertabase project management software can help.

• The online timesheets make it easy for technicians to enter in their time;
• Exporting to Quickbooks is a snap with Vertabase project management software and;
• Detailed time reports for each client or job can be printed directly from Vertabase or exported as PDF’s or Excel spreadsheets.

Here is an excerpt from the case study about online timesheets:

“The principal distinction between Vertabase 4 and the numerous other software solutions that we tried is ease-of-use,” said Brian Zifkin, Sales Manager, NCS. “Efficient pull-down menus eliminate the need to type and a Web-based interface means that time sheets may be sent from any location. It’s amazing how much more streamlined our billing process has become since we introduced Vertabase 4. And, more importantly, simplified billing has led directly to accelerated cash flow.”

“With operations and clients across several states, we provide hardware, software, infrastructure and support to our clients largely in the manufacturing and medical sectors. With about 25 projects on-going at any given time, time-tracking is essential to our success. In the past, one of our biggest challenges was getting our technicians to track their time punctually. It was a hassle. Until now, no other software solution worked to our satisfaction. We’ve streamlined our billing and accelerated our cash flow - all because Vertabase 4 is so easy to use,” Mr. Zifkin concluded.

The Midwest Technology Leaders conference hit a home run this year with the quality of the people it drew.  I’m talking about the CIO’s, Directors of IT and most excitingly the IT entrepreneurs, those small business people who have slugged out an IT business in Michigan and have continued to grow.

Frankly, this was a group of people I didn’t know existed in the area (and I’ve been here for 11 years). I saw a slue of these companies come into existence during the .com boom but after the implosion, the landscape seemed dead.  Seeing these people all in one room, talking to them -all still hungry,  seasoned and focused on growth, created a buzz that I haven’t felt in Michigan in a long time.

I’ve attend conferences and business meetings across the America’s, felt the buzz and creativity in other cities. Attending this event opened the door for a perception change about this region. 

And what is the secret to this event, what brought these people out of the woodwork? The credit’s got to go to the people behind the scenes who dreamed it and made it happen (people -and not organizations), specifically,  Tracy Ann-Palmer. She launched the symposium and benchmarked it with leadership conferences from around the world. Thank you Tracy-Ann for brining the vision to this area.

This year, Tracy-Ann, had another powerhouse behind the scense to make it happen and up the energy level even more: Cindy Eggleton from CERB Associates.

I talked to many people there and the consensus seemed to be the same. I don’t know how they did it or what it is, but this year more than others, the event inspired and energized those who participated to reach farther and grow further -no small feat in Michigan today.

BTW, the location rocked, the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Who knew we had such a gem of conference facility in the area?

We are happy to announce the release of the Vertabase Timer v. 1.5 to track time on projects and track time on clients.  This sleek desktop widget runs on MAC and PC (-its been tested on Leopard and Vista).

New Features include:

1. Addition of a PAUSE button.
2. Making the SHOW TIME time usage report editable.
3. Export to CSV for use in applications like MS Excel and Google Spreadsheets.
4. Export to XML with meaningful node names.
5. Easier autosuggest.

To make this all possible, the Vertabase Timer was entirely rebuilt in Flex.

Join the more than 3,000 people who have already downloaded the Vertabase Timer. You can download the latest version of the time tracking application for free at the Vertabase Timer homepage.

The application runs on Adobe’s AIR.

By the way, all these features came from feedback from our Community. Join now and be heard!

Tell us what you’d like to see in Vertabase Timer to make it easier and more useful for you.

Vertabase is proud to have been honored by the Michigan Council of Women and Technology at their annual Partnership Recognition and Scholarship Award event.

 This great organization encourages the advancement of women in technology related fields through mentoring, Summer tech camps for girls, laptop awards and, to-date, 0ver $300,000 in direct scholarships to a remarkable group of people (through the MCWT Foundation). Keep up the great work!

Question: How can government be made more efficient with project management software or by using project management in public administration?

Answer: Project management software provides a clear structure in which all steps of a public works project can be spelled out.

A basic break-down of the steps in a project can provide an effective operational overview of municipal or Federal government projects.  This gives executives or public sector employees a clear way to track progress, identify bottlenecks and learn from past projects -because the tasks involved and people or departments associated with those tasks are clearly identified.  This level of visibility in public administration can breed increased efficiency and transparency in the use of government resources.

Public CIO and Governing.com picked up a recent Vertabase press release highlighting the City of Fort Lauderdale’s IT department as a great example of project management software in the public sector.

“For us, the challenge was to implement a structured and formal approach to project management,” said Tim Edkin, Director of IT Services, City of Fort Lauderdale. “About a year ago, we started investigating our options. We looked at four or five project management solutions, including Microsoft Project. Eventually, we chose Vertabase because it is easy to use, it’s well designed and it’s well supported. In the past, if a project was late there wasn’t much we could learn from it. Now, we’re very analytical. We see what’s happening and manage accordingly. By providing an effective operational overview for City Hall, Vertabase has improved the way we manage our resources.”

As far as the technology involved, the City of Fort Lauderdale is running Vertabase with a flexible group of technologies that play well together, starting with Adobe’s ColdFusion using an MS SQL back-end integrated with SAP/Business Object’s Crystal Reports.

Export Reports.com added a new feature this week. ExportReports.com will now embed any images in your Basecamp project in the exported pdf. Supported formats include: bmp, gif, jfif, jpeg, jpg, png, pnm, raw, tif, tiff, wbmp

I’d been meaning to write a review of the XO Laptop for the last couple of months.

This recent article in the Wall Street Journal finally prompted me to put this response together.

I purchased one through the special promotion and our kids love it. And continue to love it.  It has proven to be a staple when they are bored at home or when we travel -particularly to places without connectivity.

The main functions they use are exactly the creative programs that come pre-loaded.

They are more intuitive than the off-the-shelf equivalents and still offer a tremendous range of creativity -particularly Tom Tom and eToys.

As a parent, I find that the XO has a different paradigm than a traditional computer. One that fosters creative thinking. It is built for kids to explore and to offer them a language/medium to express ideas that are often hard to describe but easy to show.  Whereas my PC (Windows or MAC) is designed primarily to increase productivity -to make it easier to do x or y task.

The fact that the web browser is clunky doesn’t bother them. If they want to play on the web, they’ll go to a Windows machine. Just like if they want to watch TV they’ll go to a television.  (I was hoping I could use it for using web-based software while away but neither the built in browser nor the XO ready version of Opera were up to the task.)

A big favorite with my kids is the Journal feature. They love being able to see what each one did and to add on to previous work. Its a lot easier for them than “saving” files  or searching folders or a network for someone else’s work.

Overall, its a keeper (and even something they fight over).

Happy to announce the beta launch of ExportReports.com!
It creates PDF reports of your Basecamp projects.

ExportReports.com is a collaborative effort with ColdFusion guru Terrence Ryan.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

On the technical side, Export Reports.com is written in Adobe ColdFusion 8 ’cause it works so well with PDF’s (-and we’re big fans anyway).

The popular Vertabase Timer now runs on AIR 1.0.

Visit the Timer download site to get this handy widget to track time on clients or on projects. It runs on both MAC and Windows (because its AIR). 

The current version is 0.9 and we’re still collecting feedback via the forum on what you’d like to see in the widget.

Adobe officially launched AIR 1.0 today. Congratulations!

 As an early adopter of the technology with our Timer product we are excited to see the technology reach prime-time.