Monthly Archives: December 2010

Peace of mind for $54.95

Posted on December 7, 2010 | 4 comments

What would happen if your home PC crashed and could not be fixed?

Well, hopefully not much because you have good backup of your data files.

Yeah, you would have to purchase a new PC and reload the critical software you need, , , certainly a hassle but still recoverable.

If you don’t have good backup of your data and image files, it could be a nightmare – right?

I was always pretty good about backing up my files because I run my business on my PC. The data I have here is irreplaceable and critical to my company, , , so I backed up the data at least once a month and kept a copy off site in a bank lock box. I felt pretty good about it.

Then, I learned about Carbonite, www.carbonite.com.

Cabonite backs up the data you select to be backed up automatically from a PC and stores it onto a remote server. The data is encrypted to protect it and you always have access to it, no matter where you are as long as you can get to the Internet.

Need to recover lost files, , , or an entire PC disk drive? No problem.

Need to get a copy of an old PowerPoint presentation while in Brussels? No problem, , , login to your Carbonite account and download it.

I can tell you that since starting to use Carbonite about two years ago, I feel better about my backups and off site storage than ever. It’s simple and cheap.

I know a few CIO’s who have decided to use Carbonite in their corporate office to be sure certain high level PC users (CEO and CFO, for example) have their data backed up and accessible when they are out of town, , , or in case of a disk crash on their PC.

Can you imagine how painful it would be to a CFO if he lost his company PC? Sure, you want them to back up all their personal files onto the corporate backup drives, , , but they tend not to. I can tell you that a lot of these personal files are important work files and to lose them would be very painful, , , possibly very expensive to the company.

And when a problem happens where you can’t restore a simple little PC, who gets the blame? You got it, , , the IT department.

For $54.00 a year, you can take care of the CFO and have peace of mind. Recovery of his personal files is just an internet connection away.

Got any favorite tools you like?

Post a comment and let the ITLever readers and me hear about them. Don’t assume everyone knows about your favorite tool, , , I can assure you many won’t know about it and that probably includes me.

4 Comments

Posted in IT Manager Tools

My BIG Offer – 2010, , , 3 days only

Posted on December 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

I just sent out a promotion to my newsletter list announcing a 3-Day special, , , one of the best offers we have ever made.

Four big bundles:

14 e-Books from my Practical IT Manager Series
Over 100 tools and templates from my IT Manager ToolKit
82, 20-minute e-Learning sessions from the 20 Minute IT Manager
Two BONUS Executive Reports
1. IT Business Disconnect
2. IT Due Diligence

This entire bundle would cost you over $1,500.00. You can purchase it for $299.00 through December 9th, 2010.

$299.00

Offer expires midnight December 9th.

14 IT manager e-Books

102 tools and templates

82, 20-minute training sessions

2 special bonus reports

If you have been interested in any of my materials, this is the offer you want to take. Hurry, , , the offer expires midnight Thursday night December 9th.

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Posted in IT Manager Tools

Our iPad winner is Andrew Carter

Posted on December 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Congratulations to Andrew Carter of Toronto, Canada , , , he has won our Apple iPad contest to help celebrate our company turning 10 this year.

Andrew was surprised when he heard he had won an Apple iPad from our ITLever Blog contest. He replied, “Thank you so much. I must admit that this comes as quite a surprise and a bonus. The information that you offer in your blog, in truth, is reward enough.”

He added, “My thoughts on your ITLever blog…where to begin? I like your candid approach to dispensing advice. Many times I find myself thinking ”Hey, that’s me…”! Your blog entries provide a reminder that not only do you need to manage the people, situations and deliverables around you, but you also need to manage yourself! Your writings are folksy and personal—it’s like getting a behind the scenes look/insight at management from the strategic and tactical day-to-day to the political undercurrents of which you must be aware. I really appreciate your ability to draw upon your professional, but especially personal, experiences to demonstrate the attitude/altitude adage—it’s not what happens but how you react to what happens that determines how far you will go. Your perspective covering some 40 years in IT adds an element of “tried and true” wisdom to the gems that are your blog entries. I look to you as an IT management resource and mentor. Very helpful and much appreciated!”

Thanks Andrew, , , positive comments make my day, , , and it’s even nice to be able to give something like an Apple iPad to someone I don’t even know. My job is one of the best you can have and so rewarding in being able to meet people like Andrew (albeit virtually by email) and others who strive to become better and more effective IT managers.

We continue our weekly IT Manager ToolKit giveaway, , , 4 more winners to go from our list of ITLever Blog subscribers. Recent winners include:

Glen Sabatier – Edmonton, Canada
Steve Huff – Topeka, KS
Brian Grafsgaard – Minnetonka, MN
Susan Engelbosch – Durham, NC
Steven Reid – Fortitude Valley, Australia
Duncan D’abreton – Pretoria, South Africa

CLICK HERE to see a list of all winners.

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Posted in Contests

Inspirational story puts it all in perspective

Posted on December 4, 2010 | 1 comment

Our local high school football team, the Columbia Central Lions, played in the 5A State Championship game last night and won, , , first time in 58 years. It was a huge accomplishment after losing in the finals with last year’s team, but it was not the real story of the day.

I should point out that I’m not really a Columbia Central fan and haven’t been to any of their games, , , and knew very little about the football team other than that they had a good one. But something drew me to them as I surfed through the TV channels last night and saw they were about to play in the State Championship Game.

As I began to watch, I learned about Dylan Rebeor and his story. He was 16 and a member of the Central Lions football team. Dylan passed away that very morning from colon cancer complications.

Maybe it was compelling because he was 16 and that’s the same age we almost lost our son, Eddie, from an automobile accident. We were fortunate.

Dylan attended all the games this season he could even though his health and strength kept declining. He was barely able to attend last week’s semifinal game and continued to do anything he could to be part of the team and support his teammates. To say he was an inspiration to his team and community is an understatement.

Yesterday morning on the day of the big game and in a weakened state, Dylan asked his Mother if his grandmother was with them. She told him to “Go be with her if you want to”. You see, his grandmother was no longer living.

He asked one more question, “Did we win the game?”

Her answer was simply, “Yes, we won the game.” It was soon after that moment Dylan passed away.

Well, Columbia Central did eventually win the game later that night and became State Champions. Dylan wasn’t at the game physically, but you could tell everyone believed he was with them, , , doing everything he could do to help his team.

How does this tie to IT management?

It comes back to my personal perspective of things. As I mentioned, we almost lost our son at 16 in 1993. It was one of the toughest times a parent can go through, so I understand a little about what Dylan’s parents dealt with over the last 9 months.

These situations also help you grow, albeit painfully. Now, when I have a difficult situation, it’s easier for me to understand that there are far worse things that could happen. Dealing with a problem employee, working with an unappreciative client, or even being nervous about the big presentation you have to deliver, , , they are trivial in the big picture of things, , , and certainly not life and death situations.

Even in our most difficult moments with Eddie’s recovery, we didn’t have to look very far to see people and other parents who had far worse situations to deal with. Eddie still has his challenges, but you know what, , , we all have our challenges. His issues and challenges are unique to him just as your challenges are unique to you. It’s all about how we deal with them and become a stronger person in the process.

So, the next time you have to handle a difficult situation, put it into perspective. It may still be difficult but maybe not so stressful when you have it in context with your life and what’s truly important.

1 Comment

Posted in IT Manager Tips

A nice file transfer tool

Posted on December 3, 2010 | 8 comments

Profile Magazine is writing an article about my company for a future edition and they need some high resolution photos. As you know, sending large files can be a pain. Even when zipped, image files are still quite large and can hang up an email system.

What do you do if you need to transfer a 120MB file?

Well, the people at Profile Magazine turned me onto a super utility that helps facilitate this process. It’s a free online service called WeTransfer.

WeTransfer gives you the ability to transfer one or more files up to 2GB to anyone with an email address.

The user interface is as simple as can be. After selecting the files you want to transfer and the email addresses you want to send them to, you can include a text message.

Select Transfer and you see a nice monitoring window that tells you the status of your file upload as it sends the file(s) to a temporary Internet storage facility.

Once the file transfer is completed, your targeted recipient(s) receives an email message with a download link to retrieve the file(s). This way no one’s email server gets hung up. In addition, you receive a Thank You email message that includes an option to share the file(s) with more people or to download the file(s) yourself.

When the recipient actually downloads the file(s), you as the Sender receive a nice email message telling you your recipient has retrieved the file(s). This is a very nice touch so you know everything went through.

Simple tools like WeTransfer can help your productivity. More importantly, they reduce the “hassle factor” in your life, , , and that’s a good thing.

WeTransfer is a free service at www.wetransfer.com

Do you have tools you would like to share, , , either something you created yourself or you discovered like in my case with WeTransfer? Comment on this post and let me know about your favorite tool(s). If they are helpful, I’ll create an article to share with our ITLever readers and give you credit for your submission.

8 Comments

Posted in IT Manager Tools

Key to IT credibility

Posted on December 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Very simple – Do what you say you will do!

More specifically, , , Deliver projects successfully.

A bit more defined: Recommend only things that contribute tangible business value, that are always cost justified, , , and then deliver what you say you can do.

If you’ve read my articles, you should know I define “business value” in specific terms:

Increase revenue
Decrease cost
Improve productivity
Differentiate the company
Improve client satisfaction

If your projects do not target one or more of these, you need to seriously consider whether you really need to spend time and money on it. It could be possible that you think your “pet project” is the right thing to do, but your business client doesn’t understand it at all. If that’s the case, there is a good chance it’s the wrong thing to do.

Managers who are tagged for promotion and more responsibility “get it”, , , they understand that all service organizations (IT department being one of them) are useful only if they compliment business operations and do things that helps the operations deliver the core products or services to the company’s ultimate client, , , those who buy from your company.

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The best project management resource I know

Posted on December 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

I have managed hundreds of projects in my career and even worked for a project management company at one point, , , but the company with the best and most practical resources I’ve seen is Tom Mochal’s company, TenStep, Inc. (www.tenstep.com)

I’ve known Tom since 2002 when we discovered one another writing articles for TechRepublic. Little did we know that we lived just 20 miles from one another in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. Thankfully, we met for lunch and got to know one another because not long after we would move “back home” to Tennessee.

Tom Mochal

Tom is one of those rare people that when you meet him, you know immediately he is someone you want to work with. Over the years I have gotten to know Tom quite well and invited him into my inner circle, , , we try to meet quarterly to discuss business issues and to collaborate as we strategize the future of our companies.

TenStep provides pretty much anything you want for project management, from training you to managing a project for you. Tom is one of the foremost authorities on PM methodology and Program Management in the PM space.

TenStep has an unbelievable amount of training for all levels of project managers including classroom, webinar, and e-Learning, , , probably as much or more than any company in this space.

TenStep also has international partners who carry the TenStep brand, , , you can find them on the TenStep web site at www.tenstep.com.

I’ve worked with dozens of project managers over the years, and Tom is at the top of the list. I’ve seen him in action on a few projects and no one handles PM issues any better, , , he is truly world class.

In looking back, I think Tom was absolutely the best choice to partner with when developing the 20 Minute IT Manager e-Learning series. He and I delivered 162, 20-minute sessions, , , a new session every week for 3 years. See the list at www.20minuteitmanager.com.