http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/work/blog/ en findingdutchland@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-06-15T19:42:00+01:00 http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/site/building_your_corporate_intranet_expression_engine/ http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/site/building_your_corporate_intranet_expression_engine/#When:19:42:00Z A corporate intranet can integrate many functions in a firm but more than often ends up as very complex and not so useful. To keep things simple - and cost low - I explore the possibility of building a corporate intranet on Expression Engine - a powerful content management system. Your corporate Intranet - in this case your internal (corporate) website - can form a central role within your firms’ work. Information sharing, business process management, document management and employee collaboration are all functions that can be integrated into your intranet application. In theory, your intranet can be the gateway/portal to every process in your company: it can be the first and foremost application your employees will use. Your intranet can however soon get very complex - and that usually also means: very costly. Take for example Microsoft SharePoint - an enterprise portal application. SharePoint offers a lot of functionality but it can easily become too complex and costly. For intranet budgets below 50.000 (dollars or euros) I would never recommend it. With a smaller budget, you can however still get pretty far. Depending on your wishes, you could have a corporate intranet up and running for around 3.000-10.000 (dollars or euros). What would an intranet like that possibly have to offer? A content management system backed system with: corporate news, employee directory, corporate information pages, corporate wiki (where your employees can contribute content) and picture galleries (for those company event pictures). Or in other words: a modern web-publishing system for your firm’s internal website. Expression Engine, a powerful content management system developed by Ellislab, would be a possible candidate for a “low-cost yet powerful” intranet. Out of the box it offers: content management, blogs (news), wiki’s, member management and picture galleries (and more). It is built on open source standards (PHP and MySQL) and runs on any standard web server. It is used on thousands of website around the world and can just as well power your internal (intranet) website. The power of Expression Engine lies in its flexibility: it is easily adapted to your needs. Most importantly: it keep things simple - you do not for example need a whole army of “application consultants” to help you set it up. Someone with web development/web designing skills will suffice. Over the next months I will be discussing the possibilities of using Expression Engine as a intranet system in several posts to this weblog. Information Management 2008-06-15T19:42:00+01:00 http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/site/freshbooks_online_billing_and_time_writing_software/ http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/site/freshbooks_online_billing_and_time_writing_software/#When:20:37:00Z A short review of “Freshbooks - painless billing”, online software for time tracking and invoicing. “The Fastest Way to Track Time and Invoice Your Clients”. Recently I stumbled upon ”Freshbooks - painless billing”, online software for time tracking and invoicing. “The Fastest Way to Track Time and Invoice Your Clients”. The service seemed to have some positive reviews and looked very professional - at first sight. I have been actively using Freshbooks for three weeks now and are very pleased with its functionality. It is easy to use and offers a lot, among which: Time Tracking Billing and Invoicing Expense tracking Multiple clients Multiple users Extensive reporting E-mail invoices (and snail mail invoices for the US) The free version offers only one (user) account and three clients (maximum). There are several paid subscriptions available. At this moment, I am not using the billing function and I am only using the software/website myself. Therefore I can get around with the free account. For time tracking (on unlimited projects), this is all you need. If you are running a small or medium sized business, I advise you to take a look at Freshbooks and see if it meets your time tracking and invoicing needs. Reviews 2008-06-03T20:37:00+01:00 http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/site/work_productivity_increases_with_larger_screens/ http://www.findingdutchland.com/index.php/site/work_productivity_increases_with_larger_screens/#When:09:46:00Z Larger computer screens increases workers productivity according to recent research. A large screen is not relevant in every situation. The modern knowledge worker will however profit from the increased workspace. Larger computer screens increases workers productivity according to research. A large screen is not relevant in every situation. The modern knowledge worker will however profit from the increased workspace. The shocking thing is that even though this—larger screen == higher productivity—is no news at all, most people and companies have not brought it into practice. Unless you are a trader at a bank or a graphical designer, chances are that you are still working with a 15 to 17 inch screen size. A NY Times article from 2005 already discussed the benefits from larger computer screens: The results? On the bigger screen, people completed the tasks at least 10 percent more quickly - and some as much as 44 percent more quickly. They were also more likely to remember the seven-digit number, which showed that the multitasking was clearly less taxing on their brains. Some of the volunteers were so enthralled with the huge screen that they begged to take it home. In two decades of research, Czerwinski had never seen a single tweak to a computer system so significantly improve a user’s productivity. With today’s prices for large computer screens, every company should take a moment to research the benefits they can get from providing larger screens to its workers. Any worker spending most of his or her day doing intensive ‘office’ work (reading/writing documents, e-mailing, spreadsheets, presentations, (web) researching) qualifies for a larger screen. In some cases a dual (or multiple) screen setup is preferred. Personally I advise screen sizes starting at 19 inch (4:3) or 20 inch (widescreen). 24 inch (widescreen) is the maximum for most people. Screen resolution should vary between 1280x1024 to any widescreen resolution (common resolutions: 1680x1050 or 1900x1200). Imagine achieving a productivity increase of between 5 to 10 percent per worker. With the average worker being available for 200 days a year, that translates to an extra 10-20 days of work for your whole company. These are the ‘easy improvements with large gains’ that Finding Dutchland specializes in. Advice, Productivity 2008-05-29T09:46:00+01:00