ProWorks Blog Has Moved!

In an effort to allow for more customization and better team blog collaboration, the ProWorks Blog has moved.

You will find us blogging more about things we have learned, products we like, and tips & tricks. The perspective will be varied: design, programming, marketing, social media, and other similar topics will be covered.

Hope to see you on the new blog!

http://www.proworks.com/blog

Comparing E-Newsletters and Blogs

A business blog I like to keep an eye on is called eROI Days, written by Ryan Buchanan, the CEO of eROI. I like it for two reasons. The first is that eROI is an Oregon based company specializing in e-marketing or online marketing. The second is that I was very impressed with Ryan when he visited to Corvallis for SpeakerLunch. You can view Ryan Buchanan's SpeakerLunch presentation here.

When considering the business value of e-newsletters and blogs I think its interesting to note that a marketing firm specializing in email campaigns maintains five blogs and one of them is written by the CEO. I imagine eROI would say that both are very useful business tools for and I would agree.

But what is the difference between blogs and e-newsletters? How are they used and what kind of skill and effort is involved? With limited time and resources you may have to choose between the two. How do you choose?

Aa side-by-side comparison between e-newsletters and blogs from a business perspective might be a good place to start.

	E-Newsletter	Blog
Conversation	1-way	2-way
Difficulty	Can be technically challenging	As easy as creating Word document
Writing skill	higher quality writing is expected	Casual writing style expected
Multiple writers	Yes, must be coordinated and integrated	Different writers can post independently of each other
Spam	Can contribute to inbox clutter	Reader visits a URL to read
Delivery	Entire content is delivered by email	Readers can subscribe to updates
Publishing schedule	Usually fixed	More variable
Up to date	Updates can be old depending on the publish date	Posts can be created in real time during after an event
Searchable (with Google)	No	Yes
Social bookmarking/sharing	No	Absolutely (Del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon)
Viral marketing	No	Yes
Past content available	No	Yes
Revenue source	Not normally	Ad revenue in common
Cost	Software or service licensing	Available for free
Track-able	Limited to tracking images and link clicks	Web stats are easy and free (Google analytics)
Plug-ins / widgets/ Flash	No	Yes
Display video	No	Yes
Display images	Many email viewers turn off images by default	Yes, just a like web page
Custom design	Limited	Unlimited
Semantic Web standards	No	Yes
Categorized	No	Yes, by tags, labels and date
Data/Info from other sources	Manually	Automatically via RSS and APIs

What do you think? What are your experiences? Have I missed anything critical?

Technology Tips for the Corvallis Benton Chamber Newsletter

The Corvallis Benton Chamber Coalition published a list of tips I created for using technology in the office. It wouldn't be fair of me not to mention that I learned or observed most of this stuff from my super-smart-co-workers in the ProWorks think tank over the years.

Here is a copy of the article from December 18th issue of the CBCC Communique (sorry, there isn't a static page available to direct to).

FROM THE SELF-TAUGHT TECHIE
Tips on Using Technology in the Office
By Loyan Roylance

Keep your area uncluttered
You've probably read about keeping your desk tidy, but this includes your computer screen too. Reduce your open applications/browsers to items that you are currently working on. If you aren't using it, it's a distraction. It is also wasting your computer's resources and possibly bogging it down. If you aren't using it, close it. Don't just minimize it, close it.

Disconnect when you have to
Have a project due in 3 hours? Try turning off Outlook, your phone, twitter, Instant Messenger and all of the other things that are very useful but can interrupt and distract you from your most pressing task. Research suggests that email can drop your IQ by as much as 10 points. Thankfully it's temporary (whew!).

Work locally when you can
Your computer performs best when it is using applications and files that are stored on it. Remote files and applications can be used by your computer but can also slow you down. Create a local work folder on your computer and copy what you need from the remote location. When you are done, update the remote file if needed and delete the "working" copy. If you are using a file sharing tool like SharePoint, even better.

Manage files to outlast you
Name and manage your files as if you are going to retire tomorrow. Can your replacement understand your file names? Are your files located in logically named folders? Avoid the trap of creating a crazy mess of files all over the place. Creating a bunch of unneeded duplicates can leave you and others asking "which copy is the right one?"

Share nicely with others
Have you ever received an email attachment that your couldn't open? Be aware of using obscure files types if you are collaborating with others. Many applications will save files in a proprietary format. But the good ones will allow you to save in a format that is industry standard or "open standard". Plain text (.txt), Word(.doc), PDF(.pdf), Excel(.xls) and JPEG images (.jpg) are generally easily sharable. If you are using Microsoft Office 2007 you are "out in front" of a lot of people and will need to be careful.

Carefully invest in new technology
Not all software is created equal. For each problem solved by software there are as many problems than can be created. If you are going to integrate a new tool into the way you work make sure that it is the right choice or it will cost you time and money in the end. If you are selecting software for others make sure you include them in the decision process. Trying to force feed new technology onto staff can be painful for everyone.

Take advantage of web tools (especially the free ones)
Don't think your business needs the web? Do your customers use the web? Do your suppliers use the web? Do your competitors? There are tons of great tools available and many don't cost a dime. There are innovative web tools that exist to help with just about every business process imaginable. How do you find them? See the next item below but this can get you started: http://www.webware.com/html/ww/100/2008/winners.html.

Google is your unpaid personal trainer and research staff
When you have a question about anything, try Google. How can I use Word to print an envelope label? I have no idea but I just searched Google for "envelope Word" and the third result is a step by step instruction on how to do it.

Don't be afraid to ask for specialized technical help
We all get stumped sometime and can use some outside help. Consider asking another company for some specialized advice. I recently consulted with Peak regarding some technical issue and they helped me out as a simple favor. Acknowledge the favor! Write a formal thank you letter that they can use. Tell other people how someone helped you. That stuff gets around.

Use technical support when needed
I like to figure things out myself as much as the next person. But if I use a lot of time, I'm costing myself or my business money. That's when I consider using technical support. Many software providers will give free support to a limit. Even a paid support plan can be worth it if it saves enough time and effort.

Try to be smarter than you were yesterday (or at least last week)
I love Stephen Covey's analogy about "sharpening the saw". Don't work so hard that don't have time to sharpen your saw. A dull saw just makes you work harder when you really want to work smarter. Try to learn something new about technology each day. Read a technical blog post. Spend a few minutes exploring Windows hotkeys or try out some of the fancy advanced functions in Excel. It will make you more productive and happy in the long term.

Don't be modest
Isn't it awesome when you learn something new? It feels even better when you share it with your co-workers. I prefer to run around my office with my arms raised and declare that "I am a Genius!" I suppose an email would also suffice depending on your personal style. Become a resource of information for your team.

ProWorks Loves Partnering With Peak

Peak Internet is awesome. For the past two years Peak has provided ProWorks with server hosting, a high speed internet connection, and beyond-the-call technical assistance. Recently, ProWorks has been collaborating with Peak to build custom web applications for clients. We are ecstatic about our relationship with Peak.

Peak's Service
We initially selected Peak to replace our previous host provider because of service issues we were consistently having with them. They are a large well known host and appear less costly up front. But the amount of time were spending solving problems was ultimately costing us more.

ProWorks decided to try a smaller, local host provider and we have been happy with that decision. As a web developer, we require some pretty focused and high level server support. Peak's staff is technically qualified and given us an amazing level of personal attention.

Peak's People
ProWorks has most closely worked with Michael Laport, Peak's Director of Marketing and Dave Placko the Chief Technical Officer at Peak. Both of these individuals have been great to work with. Michael and Dave are honest, professional and very accessible. They have personally gone above-and-beyond to create a great relationship with ProWorks.

The fact that Michael shares our love for the Beaver's is a bonus.

Creating Business
Fortunately our development services have fit nicely with Peaks and we have been able to collaborate on some custom web development projects. ProWorks has gained some new customers this way and for this we are very thankful to Peak.

Based on our experience I would recommend any local area business to consider Peak for any internet related needs.

ProWorks at High Tech After Hours in Corvallis

ProWorks is a Grand sponsor of the High Tech After Hours event this year. HTAH is a local networking and expo event focusing on high tech and traded sector companies in Corvallis and surrounding areas in Oregon. Roughly fifty high tech businesses will showcase the newest ideas and technologies being developed in the Willamette Valley.

This year's Keynote Speaker is Peter Adkinson, founder of Wizards of the Coast and Hidden City Games and owner of Gen Con. Peter is an entrepreneur with a Computer Science degree who turned his passion for gaming into a successful company, sold it to Hasbro and went into semi-retirement. That basically sounds like the dream of every person attending HTAH to me.

Plus he helped give us Magic: The Gathering. Oh, don't pretend you you don't know what a Happless Researcher is.

ProWorks is going to try something new this year at our table based on the concept of Visual Thinking. The most common question heard at conferences and expositions is, "What do you guys do?" As a software development company it can be challenging to communicate the answer to that question effectively in less than ten minutes. "We make software" doesn't quite give us what we do the justice it deserves. So we have created a six foot drawing to visually communicate what we do.

Our senior developer Jason Prothero discovered a book called The Back of the Napkin which describes how Visual Thinking can help communicate more powerfully than traditional business presentations. At ProWorks we have found simple visuals to be very useful when trying to understand complex ideas and problems. We thought we would share this concept at HTAH. Plus I imagine the giant hand drawn backdrop will stand out on the crowd!

The 6th Annual High Tech After Hours will be held on November 13th from 1:00pm until 8:00pm at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center located on the OSU campus across from Reser Stadium.

ProWorks Assisting Money Tree Software in Corvallis

ProWorks has partnered with Money Tree Software to provide IT services on a consulting basis. We will leverage our ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server expertise to assist Money Tree with their IT needs.

Money Tree is a Corvallis based provider of financial and retirement planning software used by planners for over twenty years. Their commercial products include Silver Financial Planner and TOTAL Planning Suite.

ProWorks is located in the same building as Money Tree in the University Plaza. "We are happy to be able to help our neighbors out. Money Tree had a need which happened to fall right in line with our software development skill set," said Jason Prothero a ProWorks senior developer. "We do a lot of consulting work for federal, county and state government agencies. It is nice to be able to help someone in Corvallis."

Geographic Data and Analsysis

ProWorks has partnered with 3Di West in Eugene to deliver an online mapping application called the Canyon County Parcel Viewer. The viewer allows users to locate tax parcels within the Canyon County, Idaho and view related information about the parcel gathered from different data sources. The Canyon County Parcel Viewer is featured in the ARCNews, a mapping and geographic information system (GIS) technology magazine. The viewer offers a free service as well as a fee-based service which delivers more advanced searching and reporting features.

Partnering with 3Di West, who are mapping and GIS experts allowed us to leverage our database and reporting expertise in a new field. The experience working with 3Di West has been great and the project has been successful. In fact, a similar system was requested by Bonneville County, Idaho and has been deployed.