John R. Pattison

CubeGuard – The perfect addition to the home office

John R. Pattison — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:53:00 GMT

I recently ran across the CubeGuard on one of my gadget sites, and just couldn’t resist buying one for myself. These are essentially customized versions of the cloth tape that movie theaters use to delineate queues. You can choose from a number of stock messages, or choose a custom message. I was a bit scared that the product would be tacky, but was pleasantly surprised by the build quality when it arrived. The mounting plates are very high quality, able to be attached using the provided double-sided taped + velcro strips (good for flat surfaces or fabric cubicle walls), the built-in magnets (good for metal cubicle ends), or #6 flat head wood screws (if you want it permanently attached to a wood surface). Even the enclosed instructions were high quality, with clear diagrams and explanations of mounting options, tips, etc.

The main target market for these is to use in cubicle farms, giving employees a way to indicate that they are on the phone, out of the office, etc. In my case, the CubeGuard is going to be the signal to my kids that Daddy is working from home and not to be disturbed (i.e. don’t knock on the door, don’t use noisy toys on the other side of the door, don’t break down into tears on the other side of the door, etc.). Below is a rare glimpse at the portal to my home office, complete with CubeGuard. On a side note, take note of the thickness of that 98%-sound-insulating wall (thank you Owens Corning Basement Finishing System).

Book Review: "Small Business Server 2008 - Installation, Migration, and Configuration" by David Overton

John R. Pattison — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:32:00 GMT

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I'm a big fan of Small Business Server, and that I have written quite a few blog posts (mainly around the RTM period) about Windows Small Business Server 2008. I was recently contacted by Packt Publishing to see if I'd be interested in reviewing a book they just recently published about SBS2008 -- "Small Business Server 2008 - Installation, Migration, and Configuration" by David Overton. The book itself is an enjoyable size -- 387 pages including miscellanea -- perfect for zipping through in a few evenings. It is divided into 13 chapters:

Chapters 1 and 2 give an introduction to the book and SBS.
Chapters 3 through 8 cover installing and migrating to SBS2008.
Chapters 9 and 10 cover configuration.
Chapters 11 and 12 user-related topic.
Chapter 13 covers ongoing management.

Overton begins his book with a well-written introductory chapter that focuses on the business, rather than technical, aspects of an SBS installation or migration. I was particularly pleased that Overton advises readers to turn to an expert for more complicated situations, and to look for a consultant that is a Microsoft Small Business Specialist (perhaps my affection for this advice stems from Info et Cetera Consulting holding this designation). Since this is an introductory level book, I throughly appreaciate that he stresses the need to turn to someone with more experience for the more difficult aspects. Overton also discusses the need to evaluate the net economic impact of any SBS upgrade or installation and verify that the system change will result in a positive benefit for the business.

My favorite thing about this book is the abundance of screenshots. Overton does an excellent job preparing users for a real SBS installation and migration by getting readers familiar with the error messages and screens that they're going to run across during the process.

One topic that Overton touched on that I haven't seen covered much elsewhere is migrating Small Business Server using Hyper-V or other virtualization technologies. Of course, running SBS2008 under Hyper-V is officially supported by Microsoft, but I haven't seen any official advice from Microsoft regarding using Hyper-V during the migration process. Overton mentions two methods for using Hyper-V as a means of reusing your SBS2003 hardware to eventually become your permanent SBS2008 hardware. The coverage of the procedure is kept at an overview level, but Overton includes a link to more detailed instructions on his website.

The core migration steps covered in the book are essentially the same as those included in Microsoft's official migration whitepaper, or those outlined on my previous blog posts. However, I can't imagine someone actually performing their first SBS2008 migration without a resource such as Overton's book. Not only does Overton provide excellent screenshots, but he also gives much-needed detail around topics such as the preparation that needs to be done to SBS2003 before starting the migration. His coverage of pre-migration preparation is actually more thorough than any coverage I have seen elsewhere.

My least favorite part of SBS2003 to SBS2008 migrations is certainly SharePoint migration. Moving a SharePoint site from one server to another is straightforward enough, but moving from SBS2003 to SBS2008 also involves upgrading from Windows SharePoint Services version 2 (WSS2) to version 3 (WSS3). Fortunately, Overton covers the WSS database migration tasks in depth, and even touches on some of the more minute details such as graphics.

As an experienced SBS'er, much of the information in the book was simply a recap of what I already know. Additionally, since the book is aimed at even a novice skill level, much of the information was presented in sometimes painstaking detail. However, I was pleased to find little gems throughout the book. A good example is in Chapter 8, when discussing migrating shared files; Overton provides a link to scripts on his website, along with Microsoft-provided tools, that streamline the process of duplicating the configuration of file shares and permissions on the new SBS server being migrated to. Another example is how Overton explains how to make pre-existing user roles appear in the SBS console using some ADSIedit trickery. Overton even describes how to get the new SBS server to respond to requests for resources using the old SBS server's name. Overton even makes a point, in the maintenance chapter, to show some of the more common error messages that administrators may run across, along with an explanation of their cause. These "gold nuggets" of information distinguish the book from being simply a more elaborate version of Microsoft's SBS migration whitepaper, and offer real value to even a seasoned SBS veteran.

This certainly is not the first SBS 2008 book in the marketplace (thank you, Cris Hanna, for the input on this point). Other books available include:

"Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed" by Eric Neale (Sams Publishing, 816 Pages)
"Windows® Small Business Server 2008 Administrator's Companion" (Microsoft Press, 720 pages)
"Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Blueprint" by Harry Brelmsford and Philip Elder (SMB Nation, 613 pages)

However, I don't feel that Overton's SBS2008 book is a direct competitor of these other resources. "Small Business Server 2008: Installation, Migration, and Configuration" does not purport to be the more comprehensive SBS2008 reference book available. Instead, it takes a practical approach -- guiding a user through the migration process so that he or she becomes comfortable with it even before ever touching a live SBS box. Overton's combination of technical detail with practical advice (e.g. How long steps will take, and the impact of procedures on end users) makes this an enjoyable read. An experienced IT Pro may find some of the material (such as the overview of how to use Outlook) a bit too introductory, but I believe that even an experienced IT Pro (who maybe isn't an SBS expert yet) can find enough helpful advice to warrant spending some quality time with this book, and someone with less experience will find the book a nice introduction into SBS2008, which will hopefully spark his or her desire to dig deeper and learn more.

Interested in purchasing this book?
Buy it now from Packt and help support this blog

Keeping IT Simple - Infrastructure Choices for the Small Business

John R. Pattison — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:42:31 GMT

With the economic climate becoming increasingly hostile to small businesses, I've been giving a lot of thought (and research) into how small businesses can keep their IT costs low and maintain a smoothly-running IT infrastructure. Of course, the best way to discuss these topics is to dive into a specific example.

THE SCENARIO...

The scenario for this discussion is an accounting firm with 5-10 employees (I'm being particularly ambiguous, as this scenario involves a real client). Currently, they run Windows Small Business Server 2003. I'll summarize their IT needs as (1) Exchange Server, (2) file serving, and (3) database software [to run their accounting software]. This client is coming up on a server hardware replacement cycle, which is desperately needed because their current server was from a local IT provider and is not under a support contract (I'm a Dell server+support contract fan).

MOVING EXCHANGE TO THE CLOUD...

My original thought had been to simply upgrade this client to from SBS2003 to Windows Small Business Server 2008. I'm a big fan of SBS2008. It's a high-quality product and great for managing a small business IT environment. However, one product has made my love of SBS2008 waver a bit -- Microsoft Online Services (MOS). We have been using MOS at Info et Cetera Consulting since it was in beta, and we feel that it's a no-brainer for any business that truly RELIES on email and cannot live without downtime. It's not that Exchange Server is a particularly "needy" piece of software; regardless of its package (SBS or stand-alone) Exchange is pretty easy going -- set it up and odds are that it will run for the life of the server without incident. However, it's the factors such as ISP outages, spam protection, and disaster continuity that really make MOS shine. If a business is going to rely on email as its primary means of communications, then they need to have more of a barrier to blackout than a squirrel chewing through a wire, or an ice storm causing a power outage. MOS is relatively cheap as well -- $10/user/month with 5GB/user storage (5 license minimum). This makes it a no-brainer for <10 users, and in my opinion a strong option for <50 users. I've tried other hosted Exchange providers, and can attest that MOS is the only one worth considering.

SERVER OPTIONS...

So now that we're sold on migrating the small accounting firm to Microsoft Online Services (we ARE sold, right?), we have to reexamine our assumption about upgrading to SBS2008. It's not really an issue of cost; SBS2008 with an extra 5 client access licenses is not much differently priced than Window Server 2008 with an extra 5 client access licenses. But now there's an extra twist; Microsoft just recently announced Windows Server 2008 Foundation -- a low cost server option aimed right at this type of scenario. Foundation is cheaper than SBS2008 (it's about half the cost of Server 2008 Standard), and best of all you don't have to buy client access licenses (but again, you are limited on the total number of users). While we do lose out on some of the management aspects of SBS2008 (wizards, daily status reports, etc), we gain a big benefit -- SIMPLICITY. A simpler IT infrastructure always ends up having a lower total cost of ownership.

But there is one more option worth considering -- Windows Home Server. Some readers may be thinking "Did he just suggest a HOME product for a business?" To this, I answer "Windows Home Server rocks... Buy one for home and try it out!" The biggest feature that Windows Home Server brings to the picture is client backup. Getting back to our specific scenario about the accounting firm, their workstations (laptops) have A LOT of business software loaded onto them. They also have a lot of client files on their laptops. They're pretty good about backing up their client files to the server (they know that it's THEIR productivity that takes the hit if they lose a week worth of work), but what doesn't always get backed up is their computer configuration. This means that if they install that screensaver their buddy sent them and it completely hoses their machine, they may have to spend a whole day getting software reinstalled. Worse yet, sometimes having to reinstall software on one machine will force them to upgrade the software version on EVERY machine (i.e. Can only install the latest version, but all networked computers have to run the same version). So having a product that seamlessly backs up each workstation at an image level can result in HUGE cost savings when hard drives go bad, malware strikes, etc. Best of all, Windows Home Server is CHEAP. After adding in a couple of extra drives, you're still under $500 for a great little server that's disaster-resistant and drop-dead easy to manage. At that price, why not? The only catch is that you're limited to 10 users.

DECIDING ON AN APPROACH

So now the question is which path to take:
(a) Windows Server 2008 Foundation
(b) Windows Home Server
(c) Both

Just sticking with Windows Server 2008 Foundation is fine, but we're not getting the added benefit of workstation backups. Yes, there is other software available to do this, but Windows Home Server is just so good at it.

If we ditch Windows Server and just go with WHS, we have the lingering issue of what to do with the domain. All of the workstations are currently connected to the domain, so if we just turn off the domain server, we leave the machines in a somewhat orphaned state. They'll still work, of course, with cached credentials. However, when a different user wants to use a machine, now we're introducing the issue of having to create a local user account for the other individual. That certainly is not ideal, and this suddenly does not sound in line with "keeping IT simple". If this were a "virgin" IT environment without much user-hardware-switching, I'd humor the idea of JUST doing WHS, but in this scenario the manageability of having domain-joined workstations offers a real benefit.

So what about a hybrid environment, where we move the domain over to an inexpensive server running Windows Server 2008 Foundation, and then add a Windows Home Server into the mix? We could let WHS handle workstation backup and simple file serving (it's really good at this, as even an end-user can add storage to the drive array), and then let the Windows Server handle the domain and any database needs (i.e. SQL Server). The primary drawback is that users have to be added to both servers. Of course, the other question to consider is whether doing this approach appropriately manages the balance between simplicity and functionality. After all, WHS image level back-up is wonderful and convenient, but Windows Vista (Business or Premium editions) already has great built-in image-level backup functionality.

SUMMING IT UP...

In the end, I decided that the best way to "Keep IT Simple" was to move the client's domain from SBS2003 to Windows Server 2008 Foundation + Microsoft Online Services, and let users do their own workstation backups using the image-level backup tool provided in Windows Vista. While the Home Server was a tempting add-in, I feared that I was introducing too much complexity. Had this been a new business without an preestablished server/domain, I would have gone with Windows Home Server, but in this case, I just couldn't bring myself to kill a domain and then deal with the mess of workstations perpetually looking for a domain controller.

Best wishes to all of the IT Pros out there... Keep that infrastructure simple and fight TCO bloat!

Creating a Modern Line of Business Application using eXpressApp Framework

John R. Pattison — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:09:35 GMT

About a year ago, I began work on a large project to replace a FoxPro-based line-of-business application with a new modern system that would provide the customer with better visibility and management of their data, as well as improving our ability to rapidly implement new software capabilities to improve their business operations.

Before I get into the details of the new system, I'll elaborate a bit on the old system. The customer's Microsoft Visual FoxPro solution had been ported from the pre-Microsoft non-Visual version of FoxPro, so it was entirely text-based. In its previous life, the system resided on an IBM 36 with the users running dumb terminals. That code was later ported over to FoxPro by a previous consultant -- Mike Bilodeau -- one of the world's foremost experts on developing business systems on the IBM 36 (Mike passed away in October 2002).

While it's easy to look at a text-based system today and criticize it for appearing so archaic, the reality is that text-based systems are fantastic for data entry. Frequent users of text-based systems fire off "magical" sequences of numbers and letters needed to navigate through screens with greater speed than they would ever achieve with a graphical interface. Where text-based interfaces fall short is (1) discoverability [the time to bring a new user up to speed on the system], and (2) flexibility [being able to discover new ways to do things, or to handle non-routine tasks]. Both of these shortcomings can lead users to FEAR, rather than embrace, the computer system needed to perform their work responsibilities. Of course, there are also the more image-based reasons for replacing a text-based system in today's computer environment (e.g. when the "big client" comes to your office and is completely unimpressed by the software your employees use on a day-to-day basis).

This system replacement was a classic custom line of business software project -- where the job can only be done through the application of computer software, but there is no commercially-available "off the shelf" software to manage the unique data requirements of the business. This type of project is more complicated when replacing an existing software solution, as one has to meet the requirements of the business while also meeting & managing the expectations of the users. This system also had LOTS of integration with a separate system (the web-based "customer facing" system, as opposed to the "back office" system). So there were lots of moving parts to consider to ensure a smooth replacement.

Around the time that I was determining the architectural / platform approach to take on the new system, I went to the DevConnections conference in Orlando, FL and met the folks from DevExpress, who were demonstrating their new business application framework -- eXpressApp Framework™ (XAF). I had learned a bit about XAF from DevExpess's website, but was excited to see it in person. I was truly inspired by what I saw -- a flexible framework that generated a great software interface out-of-the-box, with LOTS of extensibility points for customization. The framework is very well componentized, so if you don't like the way something is implemented, you can override the code with your own. Another added benefit of going with XAF is that they provide subscribers with source code, so if you don't understand how something works you can "peek behind the curtain". My fear with any "application framework" was getting stuck into doing things a certain way, and then not being able to meet customer needs or expectations. I was impressed enough with XAF to get past this fear and decide to immerse myself in becoming an expert on the framework. I was comforted by the fact that DevExpess offers excellent support, with code samples to accomplish very sophisticated tasks/customizations.

So after experimenting with the betas of eXpressApp Framework, I made the decision that it would be the most cost-effective path for creating a powerful business application for the client, and began the process of requirements planning and business application development. At this point, XAF was still in beta, but shortly into the project XAF went into "released" status.

The core concept of XAF is that you create standard .net classes to represent your business objects. Each class eventually turns into a database table, and each property in the class (assuming they are persistent properties) turns into a field in the table. XAF then generates a basic yet powerful user interface around each classs, with a "list view" to see records in an overview/grid format, and a "detail view" to view/modify all of the properties of one specific object. The information about all of the classes is combined into an "application model", which can then be customized using a plug-in that XAF installs into Visual Studio. XAF generates both a web- and Windows-based user interface, with a hierarchical solution structure so you can make top-level changes that will show in both UI's, or changes that are specific to one UI. This really takes away the "boring" part of making LOB software -- creating all of the CRUD (create-read-update-delete) screens. From the basic CRUD functionality, you can really dive into all of the customizations that you may need, such as custom data entry forms, specialized functions that transfer data to other systems, etc.

Perhaps one of the most power features in XAF is that is has a FANTASTIC reporting module (using DevExpress's XtraReports product). Reports must be designed using the Windows-based application, but they can be viewed in either the Windows or web UI. The reporting interface did take quite a bit of work to learn all of the tricks for creating complex criteria, variable sorting, hard-coded printer settings, etc. Fortunately, the solution always ended up being very elegant and component-based, keeping our code clean and easy to maintain.

One of the functions that I was most proud of is something that the users will never touch -- the data import routine. The import really is one of the most critical components of the entire system, as it's one of the only situations where you only get one go at it, without the benefit of time to correct mistakes. Timing was particularly critical because our conversion had to coincide with the end of the calendar month, which unfortunately fell in the middle of the week. In my first go at the conversion code, it took approximately 12 hours to complete -- not feasible when you only have 5PM - 7AM as a conversion window. After reading through a lot of DevExpress support resources, I was able to get that down to 4 hours. Most of the previous conversions I've worked on involved using something like Microsoft Data Transformation Services (DTS) or complex SQL queries to map table fields and copy the data across. In this situation however, there was a lot of business logic that needed to happen as the data transferred, for example: checking referential integrity, changing strings into numbers, and creating normalized business objects from extremely denormalized data structures. This is where object-oriented programming really came to the rescue. Modern object relational mapping (ORM) software leads to code that is truly quite readable, to the point where I could even share the code with the client and they could understand how data are mapped between the two systems. This decreases the risk of disasterous bugs in the import, therefore increasing the odds of a successful implementation and a happy client.

I am proud to say that all of our maticulous planning and coding paid off, and the implementation was a complete success. I am also proud that we were able to implement enough new features into the software that the users did not revolt against a slowdown in their data entry speeds, since they were now able to better achieve tasks such as searching and analyzing data. Overall, the users of the system feel that they have a better understanding of the system and a greater level of control, eliminating software-induced fear which users can experience with older task-oriented (non user frienly) systems.

Many thanks go to DevExpress for creating an excellent application framework, as well as being there (through their support structure) to help with the complex customization tasks. The base of knowledge we have acquired around eXpressApp Framework have led us to reevaluate what is economically feasible for small businesses on restricted budgets, and given us a competitive advantage in the field of custom line of business software.

If any other solution providers are thinking about using eXpressApp Framework, we feel that we can make a strong case for engaging Info et Cetera Consulting as an XAF consulting resource to help your team get up-to-speed on XAF and succesfully (and economically) create a cutting-edge line of business system.

A Guide to Being an Independent Consultant – Team Collaboration

John R. Pattison — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:21:08 GMT

I’m a strong believer in every independent consultant needing a “hit by a bus” backup. Of course, your backup / teammate also becomes your “go on a cruise” backup, “having a baby” backup, etc. Of course, in a small team you and your teammates are probably going to be working on different projects at different times, and it’s not very feasible to have meetings on a daily or weekly basis to expect to bring your teammates up to date on everything you’re working on. The solution is to put in place a really top-notch collaboration system that will allow you to store all of your team’s knowledge in a central place, capture a log of what you’re working on, etc.

A few years ago, we at Info et Cetera examined our various options for such a collaboration system. Here were our requirements:

Flexible: We wanted to be able to put ANYTHING into our collaboration system, without the system getting in the way.
Handwriting: We wanted to be able to use Table PCs to capture our thoughts during meetings.
Centralized Storage: We wanted one centralized and secure location where the data is stored.
Synchronization: We wanted to have ALL of our data available to ALL of our team members.
Offline Access: We wanted to be able to access our data even if we did not have Internet Access.
Cost Effectiveness: Like most small businesses, we wanted to keep our costs low.
Security: The information in this system is sensitive, and must be treated with the greatest care.

Version 1 of our Team Collaboration System -- SharePoint

Our first attempt to fulfill these needs was using SharePoint. Here are the results of our experience...

Positives of using SharePoint as our team collaboration solution:

SharePoint has a great mobile web interface that lets you view and modify lists. This was nice for smartphone access.
Lists such as Calendars, Contacts, and Tasks can be synchronized with Outlook for offline access.
Great features around custom lists let you really create a wonderful per-customer portal.
Ability to create client extranets by inviting our customers to have access to their portals, paving the way to things like a customer / wiki and a per-customer issue tracking system.
For the most part, interaction with SharePoint is done via a web browser, which is nice because there is no client to install and you can access it from any computer with Internet access.

Negatives of using SharePoint as our team collaboration solution:

Backing up data from SharePoint can be difficult, though it is scriptable. Realistically, you have to rely on your host doing good backups and being there for you in the case of an emergency.
In the case of hosting your SharePoint site with a third party, there are the usual third-party risk factors, including always the risk of downtime, fear that your host may cease to exist, and general issues around hosting your important data with a third party.
Beyond Calendars, Contacts, and Tasks, offline access to Custom Lists and Document Libraries is only possible through the use of third-party offline synchronization utilities, which add to the cost and complexity of the solution.
For the most part, interaction with SharePoint is done via a web browser, which can be sluggish and get in the way of working quickly / efficiently.

Other notes about using SharePoint as a team collaboration solution:

You must choose a host that offers SSL access (and blocks non-SSL access) to your SharePoint site. Connecting to SharePoint via non-SSL is not secure enough for storing sensitive client information and puts you at risk of professional negligence.
Though you can certainly install SharePoint on your own machine running Windows Server, I wouldn’t recommend using it unless it’s via a host that implements a high level of redundancy.
It’s really worth picking a top-tier SharePoint host. You can’t have downtime with a critical system like this, you have to be positive that it’s being backed up, and you need to have a host with a strong data security procedure. My recommendation is Microsoft Online Services (gratuitous plug: Info et Cetera is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and can help you get set up on Microsoft Online Services).

We tried SharePoint for a while and really enjoyed many of the positives outlined above, but it didn’t quite satisfy all of our requirements. The third-party risks were probably the biggest issue, followed right behind by offline access. We also just wanted something that was simpler to manage and didn’t feel like a barrier to getting work done (management of the sites, creating new sites for clients, etc). This led us to keep looking for a better solution.

Version 2 of our Team Collaboration System – OneNote

We ended up settling on a solution based on OneNote.

A quick overview of OneNote:

OneNote is a program included in certain SKU’s of Microsoft Office, or available separately.
The key to OneNote is that it is very flexible. You can put in any type of content you want. You can use a Table PC to handwrite notes, or a keyboard to type notes. You can even use a microphone to record a meeting, which will then tie the audio to the notes you are writing or typing. You can insert a picture if you want, or even an entire file. If you copy and paste from your web browser, it will even notate the URL that the picture came from. It even comes with a screenshot utility that can grab an image of a portion of the screen and put that onto a page.
OneNote has integration with Outlook if you want to tie together items such as Tasks to entries in OneNote.
OneNote has great searching capability. It even performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on pictures you insert into a page, so your search results can find words within images you inserted. This is nice for things like inserting a picture you took of a business card, and later being able to search for a person by name.
If you have a smartphone running Windows Mobile, there is a mobile version of OneNote that lets you take or read notes on the fly. I wish the mobile version were a bit more feature-rich, but it is what it is.
OneNote has fantastic synchronization. If your Notebook is located on a shared folder (i.e. a file share on a server), OneNote automatically caches a local copy of your notebook and will synchronize it continuously and transparently in the background. The synchronization is the nicest of any program I’ve ever used. Two people can add notes to the same page in a notebook at the same time, and OneNote figures it all out and synchronizes everything together. In other words, OneNote has a very small level of atomicity, so it syncs notebooks on a page object level so that two people can simultaneously work on the same page in a notebook without fear of synchronization errors.
If you don’t have a server available to synchronize to, you can use SharePoint to act as the central repository for your information and then synchronize your data to that.
Your notebook is stored in a simple file system structure. Section groups equate to folders, and Sections equate to files. There is no heavy database associated with OneNote. If you want to change where your central repository is, you can just cut and paste the files, then change where OneNote is pointing.
OneNote automatically creates backups on every workstation that is synchronizing to the central repository. You can configure how many backups are retained. So essentially, you end up with a distributed information backup system.

How we use OneNote as a team collaboration system:

We have a single OneNote Notebook that all of our team members have synchronized to their workstations.
In the Notebook, there is a Section Group for each customer. A Section Group is a collection of Sections.
Within each Section Group, we have a Section for Reference information, and a Work Log section for each consultant who works on the project.
In the Reference section for each client, the first page always includes a narrative description of the client, including key personnel descriptions, contact information, directions to the facility if applicable, etc. It’s basically everything one of our team members would need to quickly get up to speed on the client if he received an emergency call while the primary consultant was unavailable.
The Reference section also includes other pages to document infrastructure, systems, passwords, etc.
In the Work Log sections (separate ones for each team member), we create a new page for every day of work. On the page we include a log of everything we did, any notes, include any files we may need later (e.g. database scripts we ran), etc. If we go to a meeting, the meeting notes all go in there as well. This is great for billing, or for going back later and referencing information.

Security:

The central repository for our information is a file share on a server that we control in a secure data center.
We connect to that server via a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) to facilitate synchronization.
We use either folder-level encryption or (even better) BitLocker whole-drive encryption on any of our systems that hold a cached copy of our OneNote notebooks.

So we’ve lost a few things by using OneNote instead of SharePoint, such as the client extranet aspect, but the reality is that we can still use SharePoint to create those things. But for day-to-day note taking, nothing has been able to top OneNote. We can each work the way we’re comfortable working (handwriting, keyboard, etc), we can embed small files if necessary, and it has fantastic synchronization that is both fast and nonintrusive.

In Conclusion…

I hope that this post has been helpful for helping you think about (1) the need for a team even in independent consulting, (2) the need for a team collaboration system, and (3) some idea for how you might go about implementing a rock-solid and efficient solution.

A Guide to Being an Independent Consultant - Useful Resources

John R. Pattison — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:17:00 GMT

Having been any independent consultant since I first started working at the age of 16 (some 12 years ago), I’ve looked into a wide variety of services and products that help make an independent consultant more productive, professional, and profitable. So recently I decided that I should write up a short guide to the key services that I use.

Communications

As an independent consultant, a good communications infrastructure is key. This falls into two categories – phone and email.

For phone, I use a service called RingCentral (http://www.ringcentral.com), which provides an automated attendant service that is excellent for the independent consultant. In my configuration, callers are greeted with a professional message, with the ability to contact team members by dialing an extension. Once they’re into my extension, they’re prompted to state their name, followed by the pound key. Then I have the softphone on my office computer ring for 10 seconds, after which my cell phone will ring. I can take the call, listen to who’s calling me, and THEN decide whether to take the call. It’s like having a secretary screening my calls. Voicemails are then emailed to me, and I also have the service shoot me a text message just for extra measure.

For email, I am a big fan of using a hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 account. Specifically, I use Microsoft Online Services (http://www.microsoft.com/online). The only catch with Microsoft Online Services is that there is a 5-license minimum (at $15/license). However, there are lots of hosted Exchange providers. A simple Google search turns up lots of results. Exchange is totally worth the $10-$15 per month that you will spend. Also, go with a big provider – not a budget provider. If you email goes down and a client can’t get through to you, you can bet that next time they’ll be calling you instead of emailing, which wastes more of your time and potentially is more disruptive to your workflow.

Also, make sure to choose a provider that lets you use either Postini or Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering Service (which comes with Microsoft Online Services). You get what you pay for with spam filters. Postini is so cheap and easy to use that it’s really worth doing. Make sure that you put hosted antispam services in place BEFORE you migrate over to a hosted Exchange provider, or the spammers will know to just bypass your filter and send mail directly to your host.

Of course, the thing that goes hand-in-hand with hosted Exchange is a smartphone. Either Windows Mobile or an iPhone will sync with Exchange and give you realtime push email. Blackberries can sync with Exchange too, but usually require an additional add-on from your Exchange host, which often costs upward of $10/month. I’m a big fan of Windows Mobile 6.1 or higher, as the integration with Exchange is very tight an provides HTML email, the ability to search your entire mailbox from your phone, and remote wiping capability if you lose your phone.

One final communications topic I’ll mention is SharePoint. If you’re working in a team, SharePoint is a fantastic way to share your data between team members. It synchronizes calendars, tasks, and other information with Outlook, which sure is handy when you’re disconnected from the Internet. You can create wikis, custom lists, etc. For example, you can use SharePoint to create an internal knowledgebase for your team. Or use it to create an “Extranet” for each project that you’re working on. SharePoint is provided with many hosted Exchange plans, or you can purchase a hosting plan separately from a number of providers.

Back Office

For the early part of my career, I did the whole 1099 thing. It was a bit of a pain to file a Schedule C, worry about what I’m really able to deduct, etc. Additionally, I always had the lingering fear of being personally sued by a client. Insurance was another pain, but I learned that you can join your local Chamber of Commerce and get reasonable health insurance rates through them.

Several years ago, I discovered MBO Partners (formerly MyBizOffice, http://www.mbopartners.com). I feel strongly that partnering with MBO Partners has been one of the best decisions of my professional career. MBO acts as your employer. They bill your clients, collect payments, reimburse you (with your money) for your expenses, and then give you a payroll for whatever is left. They also offer group benefits and an outstanding 401k plan, which are all very nice to have. One of the most important parts for me was gaining the layer of liability protection, and also avoiding the risk of the IRS reclassifying you as an employee instead of a contractor. MBO’s fee is very reasonable – 5% of your gross receivables. I have thought long and hard about it and decided conclusively that there’s no way I could do what MBO does on my own for 5% of my gross receivables. Filing a corporation, handling filings and taxes, and even calling about overdue invoices are all HUGE time sponges.

MBO also has a great feature called Teams that lets you give your “business” a name. In my case, my business operates under the name “Info et Cetera Consulting”, but legally is a “Division of MBO Partners, Inc.” The invoices that MBO sends out all have the “Info et Cetera” branding on them, so this all makes a lot of sense to clients.

In-House Technology

Firstly, you need an INFALIBLE backup system. I strongly recommend purchasing a Windows Home Server (HP makes some very nice models), which captures complete image-level backups of all of the computers your connect to it. If your hard drive goes, you just pop in the Windows Home Server DVD and it restores your computer onto a new hard drive. With multiple hard drives connected to Windows Home Server, it can automatically mirror your data so a hard drive failure on the server doesn’t cause any data loss.

Next, you need to back up your data off-site. There is a great plug-in for Windows Home Server from Jungle Disk (http://www.jungledisk.com) that allows you to easily back up your data to the Amazon S3 service. Amazon S3 is amazingly cheap -- $0.15 per gigabyte per month. Don’t skimp; back up EVERYTHING to Amazon S3. For the couple of dollars per month you will spend, it is really worth it.

For computers, I’m a big fan of buying cheap hardware when I see it on sale. My primary desktop cost me all of about $450, and it is a beast. Of course, this strategy only really works if (1) you’re willing to “self insure” your hardware, meaning that you will spring for a new computer if this one breaks and you don’t have a service plan, and (2) you can fix the little stuff, reinstall operating systems, etc.

Software

If you work in the computer field, join the Microsoft Partner Program. The price is not trivial (~$1400/year if I am remembering correctly), but you get a TON of software for internal use as part of your membership. They also have a lower “Registered Member” level that allows you to purchase the “Microsoft Action Pack” for a couple hundred dollars per year, which gives you a good deal of software for internal use.

Also, if you develop software, don't hesitate to buy subscriptions from companies such as Telerik (http://www.telerik.com) and DevExpress (http://www.devexpress.com). These software subscriptions aren't always cheap -- often between $1000 and $2000 per year -- but they give you a competitive edge. Your competitors can make that ASP.NET webpage using the built in datagrid just as easily as you can, but your's can be a lot better and more functional if you build it using some great third-party controls!

Summing it up

I’m sure there are a lot of topics that I forgot to mention, but these are a few that came to mind that I hope will be helpful for anyone out there who is considering becoming an independent consultant. If this is a helpful topic, leave a comment below and I’ll try to write more on the subject.

Battle of the sweatshirts - Apple vs. Microsoft

John R. Pattison — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:09:32 GMT

A few weeks ago, I went to my friend Josh's house to help him hang some drywall. There was an interesting and entirely unplanned/coincidental dichotomy in the sweatshirts we chose to wear that day (I'm on/in the right, needless to say). Let me say that an electrical/computer engineer and an information systems consultant make a mean drywalling team. We were also aided by a physicist who, due to recent surgery, could not raise his arms above his head or lift more than five pounds. Pretty funny stuff... :-)

VS2008 Web Server Here Shell Extension

John R. Pattison — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:34:58 GMT

I ran across a great article on Phil Haack's blog regarding a registry tweak you can make so you can right-click on any folder and launch the Visual Studio Web Server (aka Cassini) against the directory. This is very handy if you are working on a website locally and want to spin it up without completely opening Visual Studio. Here's the code you need:

32 bit (x86)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2008 WebServer]
@="ASP.NET Web Server Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2008 WebServer\command]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\microsoft shared\\DevServer
\\9.0\\Webdev.WebServer.exe /port:8080 /path:\"%1\""

64 bit (x64)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2008 WebServer]
@="ASP.NET Web Server Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2008 WebServer\command]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\microsoft shared\\DevServer
\\9.0\\Webdev.WebServer.exe /port:8080 /path:\"%1\""

Thanks for this great tip Phil!!

Source: VS2008 Web Server Here Shell Extension (Phil Haack)

Windows 7 Beta: Adding and removing programs

John R. Pattison — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:26:58 GMT

I was playing with the Windows 7 beta today and made an interesting observation... Microsoft has made it easier to find where you remove programs!

First, a bit of background... In Windows XP and before, we used to have "Add/Remove Programs." Now that frustrated people, because they said "Who ever uses that to add a program?" Of course, the IT Pros out there said "Hey, that's where we can publish programs using Group Policy," which was followed by a collective "Huh?" from everyone else. ... So in Windows Vista, they renamed that to "Programs and Features." Now that made a lot of sense to me, but there was one problem -- people hate change. Everyone complained that they couldn't find where to uninstall programs. Some people suggested "Why don't you just call it "Uninstall Programs?" So what to do...

Windows Vista has chosen the proverbial last option -- all of the above. Below is a screenshot of what comes up when you type "programs" in the start menu. Note that there are THREE different links to the applet for removing programs, appropriately named "Add or remove programs" (old school), "Programs and Features" (for people who got used to Vista), and "Show which programs are installed on your computer" (for people who like really long descriptions for things). But wait -- that's not all. Type "uninstall" and you get even more ways to describe that same control panel applet: "Uninstall a program" (makes sense) and "Change or remove a program" (makes sense too!). Similar thing with Default Programs (blue arrows below).

At first, I was thinking "What a mess," but thinking more I guess I've decided that it makes a lot of sense to condition users to operate Windows the same way they operate Google -- by typing in what they need.

Hilarious video - Macbook Wheel

John R. Pattison — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:09:46 GMT

The Onion never fails to disappoint me. To coincide with MacWorld, they have a great parody video out about the "Macbook Wheel".

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard