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10 ethical rules for IT consultants and contractors

Submitted by Mouhamed Ndong on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 15:29

Applying a set of rules or ethics to business matters can protect you as well as your clients. In times of trouble or doubt, they help you determine right from wrong. You could just apply the big rule of rules: Treat your clients as you want to be treated. But in business, you often need specific guidance. I hope the following rules will serve you as well as they do me.

10 ways IT pros approach a problem

Submitted by Mouhamed Ndong on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 09:58

 

Quick: How many ways can you approach a problem? Oh, I’m sure the school of business you attended had plenty of businesslike names for the various approaches. I’m also betting that those approaches are so deeply steeped in academia they have little bearing on reality. (You know — the reality that smacks you upside the face on a daily basis with a Cat5 cable? Yeah, that one.)

So instead of trying to list the pedantic problem-solving paths that are available, I decided to list some of the real-world approaches many field engineers and IT admins take, which wind up (ideally) actually providing a solution.

ERP Risk Management: Taking Project Ownership

Submitted by Mouhamed Ndong on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 15:10

The scope of a typical ERP project impacts almost every aspect of the organization and the implementation risks are real. It is not unusual when actual project timelines exceed the original schedule by well over 100%. The cost of consulting services alone can grow to 4 - 5 times the cost of the ERP software (with even greater upside risk potential). Finally, we have all heard the horror stories...expensive ERP initiatives that never go-live, or worse yet those that do and hamper the business for years after cutover. That is in spite of all the “proven implementation methodologies”, an alarming number of ERP projects have unhappy endings. 

Five top alternatives to Microsoft Outlook

Submitted by Mouhamed Ndong on Tue, 11/15/2011 - 15:35

 If you’re looking for an email client to replace Outlook, you’re in luck: Many solid alternatives are available. Jack Wallen lists five top contenders.

 

Outlook is, hands-down, the most popular email client among the business set. And with good reason. It connects to Exchange, which allows businesses to determine many aspects of how and what their users can manage, use, and control. It also allows the sharing of things like calendars and contacts. But not all businesses (especially small businesses) employ Exchange. For them, there are plenty of alternatives to Outlook. Even businesses that do have Exchange may use an alternative to connect to a groupware server. Let’s take a look at a few of these alternatives and see what they have to offer.

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