What is CRM? CRM stands for customer relationship management, defined as a software technology and overall business strategy that enables companies, large and small, to manage their sales leads, accounts, orders, and case management. The benefits of CRM software include increased revenue from managing accounts and orders efficiently, more satisfied customers, and reduced costs stemming from less administrative tracking time and greater turnaround time. However, in order for companies to achieve their greatest results, they will need to expertly train their staff and have their IT departments (if they have one) integrate CRM onto their current software and hardware technologies.  Read more... (772 words, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

CRM – principles, strategy, solutions, applications, systems, software, and ideas for effective customer relationship management

Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is an essential part of modern business management. This CRM article is provided by Ellen Gifford, who specialises in helping organizations develop excellence in CRM, and this contribution is gratefully acknowledged.  Read more... (2774 words, estimated 11:06 mins reading time)

Creating financial projections for your startup is both an art and a science. Although investors want to see cold, hard numbers, it is tough to predict your financial performance three years down the road, especially if you are still raising seed money. Regardless, a short- and medium-term financial projection is a required part of your business plan if you want serious investors’ attention. Here are some tips for crafting solid financial projections.  Read more... (561 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

As the Project Manager you need to know what to, who should do what, when it should be done, why it should be done, the cost for it and a variaty of other important things. To be able to get control and stay in control you need a Baseline in your project to measure your progress against. If you not do the baseline you have nothing to measure against and in that case no possibility to have total control of your project. And as a manager you need to stay in control. The baseline is nothing else than a frozen picture of your project at a certain point time. In Microsoft Project 2007 you are able to have up to 11 different baselines in a project. I although recommend you have a few baselines as possible. You should only re-baseline when you have major changes in your project such as; delays, overrun of budget or loss of key resources. The right place in time to do the first baseline is when the initial planning is done and the budget is approved.  Read more... (382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

What Is the Critical Path?

Most projects contain a large number of tasks. The critical path is the particular sequence of tasks that must be complete for the project to be considered complete. This path dictates the finish date on your project.  Read more... (480 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

To see the Gantt Chart View, follow these steps:

1. Open your project schedule in Microsoft Project.
2. Go to View | Gantt Chart View.
3. Go to View | Table | Entry. (See Figure A)

Figure A

Sample project schedule

To start the Gantt Chart Wizard, follow these steps:  Read more... (606 words, 7 images, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

What is a Critical Task?

The short definition of a critical task is any task that will affect the end date of the project if delayed. You learn several techniques for task definition in Microsoft Project training. Some of the characteristics will cause a task to be marked as critical.  Read more... (291 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)