MS Office Enters the Clouds

At the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC09) on Monday, Microsoft announced that it was taking MS Office into the clouds. This announcement was well-anticpated last week and it was so big that it prompted Google to pre-announce their Chrome OS very early – long before there is really anything to unveil…just to get their announcement in first. Let’s look further at Microsoft’s announcement and what it means to the businesses – especially smaller organizations and cloud computing.

Microsoft announced that it will be offering a free, lightweight version of Office that is accessed via the web rather than as resident software. This move is seen as a direct hit on Google and their Google Docs offering. Google Docs is a web-based office suite that offers superior sharing and collaboration options to the conventional MS Office suite of software.

Microsoft’s Slow Progression

Eleven years ago, Microsoft began letting people access their Outlook e-mail over the Internet, though it was a few more years before it allowed customers to “rent” space on an e-mail server instead of buying the machine themselves. In November 2008, Microsoft moved its Excel spreadsheet program and a worker-collaboration product called SharePoint to the Web. Microsoft offers access to the programs for a subscription fee, so you don’t have to buy the software up-front.

Fast Forward to Now

Now Microsoft realizes that it must move much faster. On Monday at the WPC09, it publicly showed off portions of its upcoming Office 2010 suite for the first time and announced its “Office in the clouds” intentions.

What does this mean for the small business in this current economy? At a time when all business big and small are looking at ways to cut back, it means a lot. It means easier file sharing, real-time collaboration, and a nice savings to the bottom-line. Companies want full-featured products. However, lightweight versions of the Office suite of products that nearly every company has come to rely on daily is likely going to be ‘good enough’ for quite some time. Most organizations only regularly utilize 25-40% of the true functionality of the feature-ladened Office suite anyway, so switching to a cloud-based lightweight FREE (did I mention FREE?) version will – for most small businesses especially – be a no-brainer.

I’m told that the Office web applications included will be Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote and they will run inside the browser. They will be accessed using Windows Live (not Office Live…which is being discontinued). More good news is that Microsoft guarantees that they will work equally well in IE, Firefox, and Safari.

Project support unit to conduct training in project management

As reported at SKNVibes.

Roadtown, Tortola - The Ministry of Finance’s Project Support Service Unit (PSSU) will conduct a series of training workshops on the Basics of Project Planning and Management beginning on July 22.

The training, to be held at the PSSU conference room located on the third floor of RFG Building at Road Town round-about at 10 a.m., will introduce participants to the basic need-to-know concepts of managing projects.  Participants will be exposed to standard forms and tools developed for use throughout the public service.  The topics to be covered during the training will include an introduction to the PSSU; What is Project Management? and Project Planning and Management.

During the training session participants will also be introduced to the revised British Virgin Islands Government Project Management Guidelines and will be shown how to utilise the document to achieve optimum results when managing projects.

According to the unit the principal purpose of the guidelines is to support the efforts of ministries or departments to more effectively plan, implement and monitor capital investment projects in a manner consistent with stated objectives, and within the limits of financial and other resource constraints.
Manager of PSSU Ms. Shaina Smith told the Department of Information and Public Relations in a GIS Radio Report interview that project management allows the Ministry of Finance and the Government on a whole to “achieve value for money”.

“By planning projects out we are able to properly assign a cost, as well as a schedule, so that we will know how much time it would take and how much money it will cost and this can help us make informed decisions,” she said.

Ms. Smith added, “In keeping with Government’s desire to achieve a more targeted and results-oriented expenditure programme, the guidelines seek to achieve value for money by more consistently realising project objectives with optimal results.”

… read more..

Project Manager of the Year Award

As reported in Trading Markets.

New York, NY, Jul 02, 2009 (PRWeb.com via COMTEX) — JW/A | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — International Institute for Learning, Inc. (IIL) has opened the application process for the 2009 Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year(TM) Award. A global leader in professional training in Project, Program, and Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, Microsoft(R) Office Project and Project Server, PRINCE2(R), and Lean Six Sigma, IIL established this prestigious international award in 2006 to recognize project management professionals who demonstrate superior performance, outstanding skills, and innovative project management techniques, as well as those who make significant contributions in business, industry, government, community, or not-for-profit environments. The Award bears the name of Dr. Harold Kerzner, Ph.D, M.S., and M.B.A., Senior Executive Director of IIL. Considered by many to be “the father of modern project management,” he is an expert in the areas of project, program, and portfolio management and is the author of a number of best-selling project management textbooks, including Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, which is now in its tenth edition. His most recent textbook, Value-Driven Project Management (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) will be released in September of this year.

“Dr. Harold Kerzner is a true visionary in the field of project management and it is with great pride that we pay tribute to his contributions through the Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year(TM) Award,” said E. LaVerne Johnson, Founder, President, and CEO of IIL. “IIL is delighted to reward outstanding professionals for their dedication to the pursuit of project management excellence.”

Previous winners of the award have seen tremendous growth in their professional endeavors as a result of the honor. “Following my selection as International Project Manager of the Year, I have been very satisfied to see my career make a ‘quantum leap’, my network expand, and my credibility grow. The honor has elevated my status in the field, resulting in a new career opportunity that has profoundly changed my life and the lives of my family,” said Scot Hanley, PMP, MCP, 2008 Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year. “I have also been asked to contribute to Dr. Kerzner’s latest book and have been invited to lecture regularly on project management at the University of Alabama.”

To be eligible, candidates must possess the PMI(R) PMP(R) cred