Think software is boring? Think again. There are quite a few software titles that do cool or outright weird things you’d never think about.
LottoPro 2005
Do you play lottery a lot? No luck yet? Maybe it’s the time you turn to software for help. LottoPro 2005 helps you to pick winners in any lottery type — Pick 3, 4, 5, and 6, as well as PowerBall, Keno and others. History files for U.S., Canadian and international lotteries give you a basis for generating new numbers, and analysis tools (such as frequencies, hot and cold, due numbers, hit sequences, and more) that can be used with your favorite numbers to generate picks. Clearly, no software can guarantee you a win, but it’s a fun tool to pay with.
MedSpel
Can’t understand the doctor talk? You are not alone. In fact, a lot of medical professionals don’t know meaning of many terms or don’t know how to spell them. MedSpel includes over 40,000 medical spellling words that can be added to your Microsoft(TM) Word spelling dictionary on you Windows computer. MedSpel includes terms ranging from abdominis to zygomatic , which allows you to concentrate on your work instead of looking up words that are not in the basic spelling dictionary. MedSpel costs $9 and it’s worthwhile investment for folks who have to deal with medical terms day in and day out.
MP3 Doctor
MP3 Doctor is an editing tool that lets you check, modify, and improve your MP3 and WAV files. You can repair imperfect songs or modify them with trimming, equalizing, and resampling. The goal is to let you maintain similar quality, volume, and sound on all your MP3s. In addition, the program converts MP3 files to WAV and vice versa. Moreover, the program can handle ID3 tags of MP3 files. The normalize function allows you to get the lower parts of a song to higher levels and to standardize your MP3 collection. The karaoke feature lets the user remove the vocals of an MP3 or WAV file. The pitch and tempo features let the user change tempo (BPM) without changing the pitch, or vice versa. MP3 Doctor is a fine tool to play with if you like music and have tons of mp3 files.
Free Download Links:
LottoPro 2005 http://www.deprice.com/lottopro.htm
MedSpel http://www.deprice.com/medspel.htm
MP3 Doctor http://www.deprice.com/mp3doctor.htm

John Deprice owns and operates http://www.deprice.com

Angola Phone Cards 11.7

When choosing CRM software for your small business, it is critical that you understand the difference between Contact Centric CRM and Account Centric CRM. This is one of the biggest mistakes companies make when choosing CRM.
This article is a bit on the technical side, but well worth the read.
There are two basic paradigms for CRM systems: Contact centric or Account Centric. In Contact Centric systems, the primary organization is around independent contacts. In Account Centric systems, there are two levels to the basic organization: a company or account layer to which multiple contacts can be related.
CONTACT CENTRIC
In a contact centric system, the database is organized around individual contacts. So, if you have dealings with 3 different people all from the same company, you would have 3 different contact records and in each record would be the company name.
There may be ways to relate different contacts together, but these will be in the “workaround” class.
A Contact centric organization makes sense if you are dealing with individuals and you do not need to do such things as look at an organization’s combined history. It is very difficult/clumsy to track company related information separately from contact information. For example, if you want to track information about a company (e.g. sic code, # employees, annual budget, etc.) separately from contact related information (e.g. favourite hobby, home phone number, spouse’s name, etc.). there isn’t an easy way to do that:
- Under which contact do you store the company information,
- Which contact becomes the primary record,
- Do you store the information under both contacts…which makes updating difficult.
- Do you create a “contact” record to serve as the company record and somehow relate the contacts to it?
ACCOUNT CENTRIC
Account centric CRM systems have a layer above contact, the organization or account, that can tie multiple contacts together. This has the advantage of being able to track company-related information entirely separately from contact-related information. This approach is usually easier to:
- See all opportunities for an account/company.
- See combined history.
- Do address updates.
- See the organization and all its contacts in one view.
- Report on company vs. individuals easier.
MY RECOMMENDATION
If you’re working in an industry where you only need one contact record per account, you may want the simplicity of contact centric. However, if you are going to want to track multiple contacts per account then contact vs. account centric becomes a very important consideration and you should give heavy weighting to systems that are truly account centric.

Scott Gingrich is the creator of The Insider’s CRM Success Toolkit, the world’s most complete and only guaranteed approach to successful CRM projects.http://www.thecrmcoach.com.
Chile - CELL Phone Cards 11.9

I’m a retired manufacturing executive with an IQ of 137 which doesn’t make me a genius, but neither am I stupid.
I bought my first computer six years ago and I’m self taught which is somewhat of a disadvantage, consequently I consider myself a “ Newbie .“ I’m sure the majority of computer owners would fall into this category.
I’m probably not average as I am the owner of several web sites and am heavily into that area of technology.
I have no problem with the mechanical aspects of Pcs, in fact I’ve built a number of them , installed operating systems and can do minor repairs.
My problem is with instructions that come with many software programs. They are virtually incomprehensible. It seems to me that programmers write instructions for other programmers, not for run of the mill PC users.
In many cases I’ve been forced to quit programs or get refunds whenever I could. Many of these programs are well worthwhile but if you can’t fathom the instructions you can’t use them. Some offer good technical support which overcomes the problem , but others do not.
I’m a subscriber to one of the best web site programs on the internet and in this case it not lack of instructions but there are too many. They are far too verbose, and are not clear and concise. These instructions are literally hundreds of pages long, with links to many more hundreds of pages. Not only that, but there are help symbols scattered all through the instructions, which involve many more pages of instructions. This created a daunting situation for me and extended the learning curve far beyond what it should have been.
Fortunately this program has superb technical support. But it would be far better if they had a simple well indexed manual similar what you find in the windows help menus.
This situation has spawned the “Dummies “ books, but they can’t cover all the programs that are available.
Another bone of contention is the written instructions that come with many electronic products. The printing is so small that even a magnifying glass doesn’t help. Often I solve this problem by going on the internet and zooming in on the page. This isn’t very convenient at times and not everyone has a web site.
If the people who write these instructions would write them for the average person they would broaden their markets and make life easier for “ Newbies “like me. This is a constant battle for me and I’m certain many others feel the same way.

Written by: George W. Cannata, author and publisher of the web site http://www.caveatemptorus.com. You may copy this article in it’s entirety so long as you include credit to the author and links to my web site.
Italy - Turin Phone Cards 2.5

Network Security - The road ahead

Introduction

What is Network Security?

“Network
Security” -Monitoring

“Network Security” -Forensics

“Network Security” -Compliance

HIPAA

SOX

GLBA

Conclusion

Introduction
Network Security is the next wave which is bound to sweep the software
market. Increase in offshore projects and transfer of information
across the wire has added fuel to the burning urge to secure the
network. As the famous adage goes, the most safest computer is
one which has been unplugged from the network(making it almost
useless). Network security
is becoming more of a necessity. Interestingly the type of security
required across different enterprises depends on the nature of its
business. Offlate some laws & acts have been defined to
identify security breaches, which is a very good move to prevent
fradulent use/access of information. There are two types of softwares
for Network security, one which prevents it and one which does the
forensic analysis. The main focus of this article would be
the forensics of network security.
What is Network Security?
network security: the
protection of a computer network and its services from unauthorized
modification, destruction, or
disclosure
Network security is a self-contradicting philosophy where you need to
give absolute access and at the same time provide absolute security.
Any enterprise needs to secure itself from two different access of
information/transaction for that matter(ex:ftp,http etc.), internal
access and external access. Securing the access of information or
resources from the external world(WWW) is quite a task to master, that
is where the firewalls pitch in. The firewalls act as gatekeepers who
seggregate the intrusive and non-intrusive requests and allow access.
Configuring & maintaining a firewall is by itself a task which
needs experience and knowledge. There are no hard and fast rules
to instruct the firewalls, it depends on where the firewall is
installed and how the enterprise intends to provide access to
information/resources. So, the effectivity of any firewall depends on
how well or how bad you configure it. Please be informed many firewalls
come with pre-configured rules, which intend to make the job of
securing the information access from external sources. In short
firewall gives you information about attacks happenning from the
external world.
The toughest job is to secure information from the internal sources.
More than securing it, managers need to track the information flow, to
identify possible casuatives. The tracking of information flow will
come in handy in case of legal situations. Because what seemingly to be
a sharing of information could be held against you in the court of
law. To enforce this, acts such as HIPAA, GLBA, SOX have been
putforth, to ensure that the scam(s) like that of “Enron” does
not happen. In short the tracking of information and audit gives you
information abouot security breaches and possible internal attacks.
There are a variety of network security attacks/ breaches:

Denial of Service

Virus attacks

Unauthorized Access

Confidentiality breaches

Destruction of information

Data manipulation

Interestingly , all these information are available across the
enterprise in the form of log files. But to read it through
and making sense out of it, will take a life time. That is where the
“Network Security” monitoring also known as “Log Monitoring” softwares
pitch in. They do a beautiful
job of making sense out of the information spread across various
locations and offer the system administrators a holistic view of what
is happening in their network, in terms of Network Security. In short they
collect,collate,analyze & produce reports which help the
system administrator to keep tabs on Network Security.

“Network Security” -Monitoring
No matter how fine your defense systems are, you need to have someone
to make sense out of the huge amount of data churned out of a edge
device like firewall and the system logs. The typical enterprise logs
about 2-3GB/day depending upon the enterprise the size might vary. The
main goal of the forensic software is to mine through the vast amount
of information and pull out events that need attention. The
“Network security” softwares play a major role in identifying the
causatives and security breaches that are happenning in the
enterprise.
Some of the major areas that needed to be addressed by any network
security product is to provide a collective virus attacks across
different edge devices in the network. What this offers for an
enterprise is a holistic view, of the attacks happening across the
enterprise. It offers a detailed overview of the bandwidth
usage, it should also provide user based access reports. The
product has to highlight sescurity breaches and misuse of internet
access, this will enable the administrator to take the necessary
steps. The edge devices monitoring product has to provide other
stuffs like Traffic trends,insight into capacity planning and Live
traffic monitoring, which will help the administrator to find causes
for network congestion.
The internal monitoring product has to offer the audit information of
users, system security breaches and activity audit trails (ex: remote
access) As most of the administrators are ignorant of the requirements
for the
compliance acts, it is better to cross reference which acts apply to
their enterprise and ensure that the product supports reporting for the
compliance acts(please refer here
for details on compliance)
In altoghether they will have to support archiving, scheduling of
reports and a comprehensive list of reports. please follow the next
section for more details.

“Network Security” -Forensics
The most important features you need to
lookout,when you short list a network security forensic product is the
ability
to archive the raw records. This is a major factor when it comes to
acts and laws. So in the court of law, the original record has to be
produced as proof and not the custom format of the vendor. The
next one to lookout for is the ability to create alerts, i.e the
ability to notify whenever some criteria happens ex: when 3
unsuccessfull login attempts mail me kind of stuff, or better still if
there is a virus attack for from the same host more than once, notify
me etc. This will reduce the lot of manual intervention needed in
keeping the network secure. Moreover the ability to schedule
reports is a big plus. You don’t have to check the reports daily. Once
you have done your ground work as to configure some basic alerts and
some scheduled reports. It should be a cakewalk from then on. All
you need to do is check out the information(alerts/reports) you get in
your inbox. It is recommended that you configure reports on a weekly
basis. So that it is never too late to react to a potential threat.
And finally a comprehensive list of reports is a vital feature to
lookout for. Here is a list of reports that might come in handy
for any enterprise:
Reports to expect from edge devices such as a firewall:

Live monitoring

Security reports

Virus reports

Attack reports

Traffic reports

Protocol usage reports

Web usage reports

Mail usage reports

FTP usage reports

Telnet usage reports

VPN reports

Inbound/Outbound traffic reports

Intranet reports

Internet reports

Trend reports

Reports to expect from compliance and internal monitoring:
( see compliance sub-heading for reports on compliance)

User Audit reports (successfull/unsuccessful login attempts)

Audit policy changes (ex: change in privileges etc)

Password changes

Account Lockout

User account changes

IIS reports

DHCP reports

MSI reports( lists the products installed/uninstalled)

Group policy changes

RPC reports

DNS reports

Active directory reports

The gating factor for choosing a monitoring product is to cross verify
whether the devices you have in your network are supported by the
vendor you choose. There are quite a number of products which
address this market, you might want to search for “firewall analyzer”
and “eventlog analyzer” in google.

“Network Security” -Compliance
Most of the industries such as health care and financial
institutions are mandated to be compliant with HIPAA and SOX acts.
These acts enforce stringent rules in all aspects of the enterprise
including the physical access of information. (This section
concetrates on the software requirement of the acts) There are quite a
number of agencies that offer the compliance as a service for an
enterprise. But it all depends on whether you want to handle compliance
yourself or employ a third party vendor to ensure compliance to the
acts.

HIPAA Compliance:
HIPAA defines the Security Standards for monitoring and auditing system
activity. HIPAA regulations mandate analysis of all logs,
including OS
and application logs including both perimeter devices, such as IDSs, as
well as insider activity. Here are some of the important reports that
need to be in place:

User Logon report: HIPAA requirements (164.308 (a)(5) -
log-in/log-out monitoring) clearly state that user accesses to the
system be recorded and monitored for possible abuse. Remember, this
intent is not just to catch hackers but also to document the accesses
to medical details by legitimate users. In most cases, the very fact
that the access is recorded is deterrent enough for malicious activity,
much like the presence of a surveillance camera in a parking lot.

User Logoff report: HIPAA requirements clearly state that user
accesses to the system be recorded and monitored for possible abuse.
Remember, this intent is not just to catch hackers but also to document
the accesses to medical details by legitimate users. In most cases, the
very fact that the access is recorded is deterrent enough for malicious
activity, much like the presence of a surveillance camera in a parking
lot.

Logon Failure report: The security logon feature includes logging
all unsuccessful login attempts. The user name, date and time are
included in this report.

Audit Logs access report: HIPAA requirements (164.308 (a)(3) -
review and audit access logs) calls for procedures to regularly review
records of information system activity such as audit logs.

Security Log Archiving Utility:Periodically, the system
administrator will be able to back up encrypted copies of the log data
and restart the logs.

SOX Compliance:
Sarbanes-Oxlet defines the collection,retention and review of audit
trail log data from all sources under section 404’s IT process
controls. These logs form the basis of the internal controls that
provide corporations with the assurance that financial and business
information is factual and accurate. Here are some of the important
reports to look for:

User Logon report:SOX requirements (Sec 302 (a)(4)(C) and (D) -
log-in/log-out monitoring) clearly state that user accesses to the
system be recorded and monitored for possible abuse. Remember, this
intent is not just to catch hackers but also to document the accesses
to medical details by legitimate users. In most cases, the very fact
that the access is recorded is deterrent enough for malicious activity,
much like the presence of a surveillance camera in a parking lot.

User Logoff report:SOX requirements (Sec 302 (a)(4)(C) and (D)
clearly state that user accesses to the system be recorded and
monitored for possible abuse. Remember, this intent is not just to
catch hackers but also to document the accesses to medical details by
legitimate users. In most cases, the very fact that the access is
recorded is deterrent enough for malicious activity, much like the
presence of a surveillance camera in a parking lot.

Logon Failure reportThe security logon feature includes logging
all unsuccessful login attempts. The user name, date and time are
included in this report.

Audit Logs access report:SOX requirements (Sec 302 (a)(4)(C) and
(D) - review and audit access logs) calls for procedures to regularly
review records of information system activity such as audit logs.

Security Log Archiving Utility:Periodically, the system
administrator will be able to back up encrypted copies of the log data
and restart the logs.

Track Account management changes:Significant changes in the
internal controls sec 302 (a)(6). Changes in the security configuration
settings such as adding or removing a user account to a admistrative
group. These changes can be tracked by analyzing event logs.

Track Audit policy changes:Internal controls sec 302 (a)(5) by
tracking the event logs
for any changes in the security audit policy.

Track individual user actions:Internal controls sec 302 (a)(5) by
auditing user activity.

Track application access:Internal controls sec 302 (a)(5) by
tracking application
process.

Track directory / file access:Internal controls sec 302 (a)(5)
for any access violation.

GLBA Compliance:
The Financial Services Modernization Act (FMA99) was signed into law in
January 1999 (PL 106-102). Commonly referred to as the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or GLBA, Title V of the Act governs the steps
that financial institutions and financial service companies must
undertake to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer
information. The Act asserts that financial services companies
routinely collect Non-Public Personal Information (NPI) from
individuals, and must notify those individuals when sharing information
outside of the company (or affiliate structure) and, in some cases,
when using such information in situations not related to the
furtherance of a specific financial transaction.

User Logon report:GLBA Compliance requirements clearly state that
user accesses to the system be recorded and monitored for possible
abuse. Remember, this intent is not just to catch hackers but also to
document the accesses to medical details by legitimate users. In most
cases, the very fact that the access is recorded is deterrent enough
for malicious activity, much like the presence of a surveillance camera
in a parking lot.

User Logoff report:GLBA requirements clearly state that user
accesses to the system be recorded and monitored for possible abuse.
Remember, this intent is not just to catch hackers but also to document
the accesses to medical details by legitimate users. In most cases, the
very fact that the access is recorded is deterrent enough for malicious
activity, much like the presence of a surveillance camera in a parking
lot.

Logon Failure report:The security logon feature includes logging
all unsuccessful login attempts. The user name, date and time are
included in this report.

Audit Logs access report:GLAB requirements (review and audit
access logs) calls for procedures to regularly review records of
information system activity such as audit logs.

Security Log Archiving Utility:Periodically, the system
administrator will be able to back up encrypted copies of the log data
and restart the logs.

Conclusion
“Network Security” has to be done both internally as well as
externally, the job of nailing the problem is a huge task
which needs expertise and mostly help from softwares such as EventLog Analyzers(compliance and internal monitoring of internal machines) and Firewall Analyzer(virus,attacks
and traffic monitoring of edge devices).
Bibliography
http://www.interhack.net/pubs/network-security/
http://www.hipaa.org/
http://www.sarbanes-oxley.com/
http://www.senate.gov/~banking/conf/

About the Author
The author is the product manager of a suite of network security products Firewall Analyzer and EventLog Analyzer. The author is part of the software companyAdventNet
-Ramesh-

Peru - CELL Phone Cards 15.8

This firewall is designed for homes and small businesses.This firewall can support up to ten users on a basic license from Cisco. It has a 133 MHz processor and comes with 16MB’s of RAM. In addition it has 8MB of Flash RAM.
The Firewall also comes with 1 uplink port and a four port switch. It does not support Layer 2 transparent fire walling. It also does not support the routing protocol OSFP which stands for Open Shortest Path First. There is no VLAN-Virtual Local Area Network.
The PIX 501 allows you to setup a VPN-Virtual Private Network easily with the Cisco Easy VPN Server. It can support up to 5 VPN users at a time. NAT will hide the IP address of this device.
The firewall supports speeds up to 60Mbps bidirectional.
When you implement cryptography such as 3DES or DES it slows down the traffic.The PIX 501 can support anywhere from 50-unlimited users depending on your license.
Administrators can remotely troubleshoot the Cisco PIX 501, thru a CLI command line, or graphical interface. The software also contains a network topology map, and policy wizards. It supports up to 3500 concurrent connections. There are many security solutions available from Cisco.

Benjamin Hargis
Phuture Networks
http://www.phuturenetworks.com
http://www.computersecurityadvice.com
Niue Isl. - CELL Phone Cards 81.7

Designing your small business identity when working to a budget that doesn’t stretch to hiring a professional can be very frustrating. Print ready digital artwork files need to be created to a correct size, resolution and color mode. Providing poor artwork files to printers will result in an unprofessional looking final product which wont make a positive impression on your customers and could loose you business.
This tutorial goes over the basics of creating digital artwork files for creating business cards; it can also be used to create other business stationery items including letterheads, compliments slips and label artwork files by simply adjusting the sizes.
Dimensions mentioned are for landscape business cards and should be transposed for portrait business cards.
To create a new artwork file in Microsoft Publisher select the document type Blank Publication > Business Card.
Adjust the size of the document by selecting File > Page Setup. For business cards set the size to 9.5cm x 5.7cm. The dimensions include the bleed of 3mm (8.5pt) business cards.
Make sure that you set the printing options to 1 copy per sheet using the Change Copies Per Sheet Option.
To set print options select File > Print. From the drop down menu choose “Microsoft Office Document Image Writer”. In the print window click on Advanced Print Settings. Under Separations select Composite CMYK as Output and set the Resolution to 300×300. Close the Advanced Print Settings window by clicking OK and finally just cancel the print window.
Safety Margins
To create guides for the safe area in which you can add your design and text, switch on rulers by selecting View > Rulers. Now you can just drag the guidelines out of the rulers to the required position. You can remove them in the same way by just dragging them back into the ruler.
Any time an image or color is printed to the edge of a page, it must extend beyond the final dimensions of your job to allow for cutting. The size for the bleed of a business card must be exactly 3mm (8.5pt).
Text or artwork you wish to preserve must be at least 3mm (8.5pt) inside of the final dimension of your design (Safety Margins).
It is recommended that you set guides for Safety Margins and Bleed. For business cards set the guides to 3mm, 6mm, 51mm and 54mm vertically and 3mm, 6mm, 89mm and 92mm horizontally.
To save the document in Publisher select File > Safe As and save your artwork as a Publisher file. Email your .pub file to technical@goodprint.co.uk, we will convert it into an acceptable format, upload it into a basket for you and email you a link to view the proof and place your order.

Written for Goodprint Ltd, providors of instant online business cards and matching stationery via their website http://www.goodprint.co.uk.
Benin Phone Cards 6.9

Time tracking software is an incredible tool for any business. It
serves many purposes for various types of businesses, but I’ve
found that female business owners are active advocates of using
time tracking software because they recognize multiple benefits
from efficiently managing their time, as well as their resources.
Historically, time tracking software has been used by
professionals who bill by the hour and by employers to keep track
of employees’ time on the job. Time tracking software has also
proven useful for project management. Women, however, have
redefined the uses of time tracking software by using it as a
time management tool to keep their busy lives and their
businesses on track.
As a tool for tracking billable hours, time tracking software
simplifies recordkeeping and billing processes making it easy to
bill clients for the time spent on their projects or cases.
Lawyers, accountants, consultants and even handymen (or
handywomen) find time tracking software invaluable for these
purposes. Bookkeepers love it because they don’t have to decipher
each professional’s notes regarding their billable hours. The
information is quick and easy to access, and in most cases (aside
from human error) is pretty accurate.
As a tool for keeping up with employees’ time, time tracking
software eliminates the need for those cumbersome time cards that
have to be hand calculated. Time tracking software that is
specifically programmed to work as a timesheet tool for payroll
purposes will even keep accurate track of regular time and
overtime taking the majority of the manual labor out of
processing payroll. This may not be an issue for a small business
that doesn’t have a lot of employees, but for larger businesses
that are heavily staffed, time tracking software is essential to
timely payroll processing.
Time tracking software is extremely valuable to project
management professionals. In project management, not only do you
have to make sure that the project is completed on time, but you
also have to keep a close watch to ensure it is completed within
budget. On many types of projects, construction projects for
instance, various tasks associated with completing the project
are outsourced or subcontracted. If the outsource or subcontract
providers bill by the hour, time tracking software is vital to
providing up-to-date information on the project and resources
used for budget comparison purposes.
For quite some time, business people have recognized the
advantages of using time tracking software for tracking billable
hours, employee time, and project resources. Then, along came the
innovative women, the home business entrepreneurs, who tout the
value of using time tracking software on a personal level for the
purpose of efficient time management.
For these women, time tracking software is much more than a
business tool, it is truly a life management tool. Customized
time tracking software can be used to track how much time they
spend doing various business activities along with the time spent
on their personal duties and recreational activities.
When a woman’s business gets active and she needs to consider
outsourcing various aspects, if she has tracked and documented
her time using time tracking software, it is easy for her to make
decisions regarding the value of certain activities and to
determine which tasks are best outsourced. This is frequently
necessary for home business owners due to the fact that having
home and business in the same place can result in one overtaking
the other resulting in neglected responsibilities.
One female home business owner told me, “It is so easy to become
a work-a-holic when you have a home business. You really can’t
‘leave your work at the office’ because it is sitting there
staring you in the face all the time. If you end up working all
the time in your home business, then you’ve really defeated the
purpose of having a home business, which is having control of
your time so you can better meet the needs of the home and
family.”
Reports generated from time tracking software, when it is used on a personal level, alerts home business owners right away if they are falling into the trap of letting their home businesses consume their lives. Having easy access to reports that tell you
exactly how you have spent your time makes it easy to readjust
and redefine priorities so you can balance your life and your
responsibilities. Time tracking software makes this possible.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com
Equator. Guinea Phone Cards 15.8

Business plan software is something that often gets overlooked
and isn’t considered to be a necessity for some reason. In my
opinion, business plan software is essential, it is not a luxury.
I am a huge advocate of business planning. When people ask me if
they need a business plan, my response is, “Absolutely!” You see,
starting a business without a business plan is akin to starting
college without a degree plan. If you don’t know where you are
going, you won’t know how to get there. You will waste your time
and your money if you are not following a plan. It’s really that
simple!
So, you know you need a business plan, but what about business
plan software? For business planning, there are really three
alternatives: 1) crafting your own business plan from scratch; 2)
hiring a business plan writer or business planning consultant; or
3) using business plan software to write your own business plan.
Each of these alternatives has its own advantages and
disadvantages.
Writing your own business plan from scratch is certainly a
possibility. Doing so gives you the freedom to format and arrange
the plan in any way that you see fit. On the other hand, doing
financial projections, which are necessary for the purpose of
budgeting and financial planning, can be difficult to do without
a business plan program, or at least financial projection
software or spreadsheets.
Hiring a business plan writer makes sense for some people. A
business plan writer is generally well-versed in business
planning and will have insight that will assist you in preparing
a comprehensive business plan that takes everything into account.
The disadvantages to having your business plan professionally
written are the expense associated with the initial plan, and the
limitations that exist in regard to changing it as your business
evolves, which is something that business plan software empowers
you to do.
Business plan software is relatively inexpensive when compared to
hiring a professional business plan writer or consultant.
However, when compared to doing your own plan from scratch, it
may seem like an unnecessary expense. Business plan software does
have many advantages. A good business plan software package, like
Business Plan Pro by Palo Alto, has the headings and categories
for a business plan already set up for you. It also has guidance
throughout the business planning process that explains what to
include in each part of your business plan.
What I really love about Business Plan Pro is that it is so easy
to do financial projections using the business plan software,
whether or not you understand accounting. The main financial
sections include a section for start-up costs, one for income
projections, one for a proforma balance sheet, and one for a
projected cash flow statement. Information that input into one of
the financial forms automatically transfers calculations to the
other financial statement forms making the process of projecting
your financial plan a breeze.
Another huge advantage I see in regard to business plan software
is that when you use business plan software to create your own
business plan, you can make changes to it anytime you need to. It
doesn’t become a stale document that sits on the shelf and
collects dust. A business plan should be always evolving. You
should update your business plan frequently including new goals,
objectives and milestones. You should also adjust your financial
projections regularly for the purpose of budgeting. Business plan
software makes it easy to do.
If you choose not to use business software, and to create your
own business plan from scratch, you will need some guidance
unless you are a professional business planner yourself. The
Small Business Administration www.sba.gov has some excellent
resources and guides about business planning. If you choose to
hire a professional business plan writer, do review their
qualifications and references and make certain that you
understand exactly what is included in the business planning
services they are offering.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com
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Marketing software is sometimes viewed as a luxury, not a
necessity. While you can certainly accomplish marketing without
marketing software, marketing software lessens the time and
effort required for marketing and your marketing efforts will
generally be much more effective. There are various types of
marketing software, and numerous producers of marketing software.
Finding the right combination of marketing software for you is
the challenge.
The first step in preparing an effective marketing campaign is to
devise a solid marketing plan. When writing a marketing plan,
there are several things to consider. The main points are
defining your target market and identifying the characteristics
of that market, analyzing your competition, formulating your
unique selling proposition using a competitive advantage,
reviewing options for marketing mediums, preparing your marketing
budget, and setting milestones for your marketing campaign.
Marketing software, such as Marketing Plan Pro by Palo Alto, will
help you work through the details of these steps to create a
useful and powerful marketing plan.
If you intend to engage in email marketing via newsletters,
autoresponders, announcements, or mass email campaigns, you will
find that email marketing software is crucial. Of course, there
are online email marketing services such as gotcorp.com that
provide self-serve email marketing tools like Campaigner. Using
such tools for email marketing is an option, but there are
ongoing costs involved. If you choose to use email marketing
software instead, programs like Email Marketing Director and
Campaign Enterprise 9 by Arial are very good.
Good email marketing software enables you to personalize messages
and to manage your mailing lists through a database. A time
saving feature to look for in email marketing software is the
ability of the software to automatically process unsubscribe
requests. Most email marketing software packages have built-in
templates you can use to produce email newsletters, announcements
and marketing messages. Support for embedded images and
compatibility with web editing software programs may be of some
importance.
If you are really serious about email marketing, it is best to
get started with advanced email marketing software from the
beginning. Advanced email marketing software has features that
will enable you to personalize and track your email messages.
With tracking capabilities and built-in reporting functions, you
can determine the effectiveness of your email messages as well as
who is and who is not opening and responding to the messages.
These advanced email marketing software programs generally use
SQL, Oracle, or Access database technology. High quality email
marketing software also has automated features for managing email
lists. These automated, time-saving features usually include
handling unsubscribe requests and removing bounced or rejected
email addresses from the email lists.
Customized marketing software suites may be something to consider as well. With customized marketing software, you can often
integrate marketing into your sales and customer relationship
management (CRM) systems. Some features that are common to
customized marketing software include the ability to capture
leads, to forecast sales, to manage contacts, and to analyze data
that is collected through the integrated system. Project
management capabilities can even be merged with customized
marketing software.
So, the big question is, “Do I really need marketing software?”
Like I said before, many people view marketing software as a
luxury. However, marketing software makes the job of internet
marketing much easier, especially if it has automated features.
There are options to using marketing software. Online marketing
services are one of those options; however, unlike using
marketing software, marketing services generally have ongoing
fees that are charged monthly or per campaign. Using marketing
software you can devise and manage your own internet marketing
campaign which is a cost-effective solution to marketing online.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com
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The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) was formed to provide the US government with a body that developed standards for the human and technology aspects of the processes of software and systems development. It is a research and development centre. It now has a European office in Frankfurt. So what does this mean to me you are probably asking yourself? Possibly not very much but for a few minutes of your time you may find that there is something the SEI can offer you by way of a different perspective on software and the process of developing software.
The purpose of the SEI (www.sei.cmu.edu) is to enable organisations to make measurable improvements in the way they deliver code, defect free, on time and within budget. This is the Holy Grail that all users of software would like to see. They don’t want to be guinea pigs with every package or application they have to work with. The SEI has worked hard on establishing a model that enable organisations and people to understand where they are and where they would like to be in the future – with a transition path to get there. The organisation has expanded its services and expertise beyond the model initially developed, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The book, Managing the Software Process by Watts Humphries, covers the CMM and how to improve the process..
The adoption of the model is most likely more appropriate in the larger corporate organizations when implemented in a more formal manner in the more technical industries such as Telco, Aerospace and Defence. The computer industry that supplies hardware, software and services to these sectors saw an opportunity to provide development tools with services including knowledge transfer of the CMM and how it would/could work in an organisation. It was and potentially still is a big ticket item! This may not seem to be relevant to smaller organisation but I would argue that it does. Even the principles, if not the practice, are relevant to the production of software.
So - what does it do for the developer?
Firstly, I think that it helps to instill a mindset that has the quality of the code at the centre. Around that there are a number of core elements such as management, process, improvement, repeatability and communications. In reality this stuff applies to any human business activity but we are either too lazy or lack the knowledge to do it.
Secondly, it makes you think about the impact of whether you are doing or not doing something and communicating that to your peers in a team. This is a key issue because as we have seen in many stark situations, imperial gallons have been measured as litres, millimeters as centimeters, or scales on engineering drawings measured in metric but implemented as imperial and so on. These types of mistakes have lead to not enough fuel being pumped into a passenger aircraft, resulting in a serious incident. Some lead to costly errors and others can result in death. You may think that this is an extreme example and not relevant but I would take issue, because there are two things that matter here. Firstly, there is the capability and knowledge to do the job correctly and secondly the communication, recording and checking the work that has been done. If the management process supports these then the risk are reduced, which in turn means the impact of a mistake is also lessened dramatically.
Thirdly, it could be used as the basis for an apprenticeship, like the apprentice model of years ago. This way of passing on knowledge to the younger generation went out of fashion, but it seems to be making a comeback now. The role of the apprentice was to learn from the experienced hand who had been doing the job for years. Supported by training, especially updated training on new methods of doing things, the apprentice would become experienced through a two or more year process. This typically applied to trades such as plumbing, electricity etc. I believe that this could be a vehicle to transfer knowledge from the older generation of developers to the younger generation. Aside from the courses in university (which is a separate issue) not much on the management and process side is appropriately taught in computer science degrees. They are too technology orientated, unless you know different ;-)).
Fourthly, it provides a framework in which the developer can work to deliver code that is free from bugs and on time and on budget. The measurements are goal orientated and not focused on time and money. The normal measurement is a financial measurement which means the mindset is focused on delivery and not on the quality and robustness of the code. The framework need not be heavy duty – lightweight and flexible may in the end turn out to be best for most projects because that is the nature of the beast. But where governance and accountability is important a more heavier duty framework will go the distance a you will need to have documented all of the activity, people, spend etc for and inquiry on the state of the project and the software that has been produced. If it is software that has a direct bearing on life or death then the ability to show how the code was derived, how it is structured, how it is put together with other code, what the processes were for defining requirements, audit trail from code to initial idea, how the developers worked, what standards they use etc. is critical. Perhaps more applications should have a ”black box” for code, a component inside the software that can take readings from points in the application as it running. I know that there are a few products like this but if more users required this to be part of the application we may see software quality issues reduce.
So what should you be doing? I suggest a review of your current development practices and what you think needs to be done. Look at the SEI website and see what nuggets of information that you could use in your team or organization (no matter how small it may be). Check out http://www.sei.cmu.edu/ .
It would be interesting to hear how you get on, please let me know by emailing me at paul@thedeveloperscatalogue.com .

Paul has over 25 years in the computer industry working in the area of software development. He has worked for Digital Equipment Corp, Sun Microsystems, Olivetti Systems and a number of companies developing software applications. He is currently running a new developers website - http://www.thedeveloperscatalogue.com/ - and he is also writing articles for the site and for other publications including International Developer Magazine.
It would be interesting to hear how you get on, please let me know by emailing me at paul@thedeveloperscatalogue.com .
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