Computer Careers Book
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Microsoft Project update
This updates the article at:
Microsoft Project for Not Yet Techies
The current version is Microsoft Project 2007. This is actually a "family" of products which includes:
Office Project Standard 2007
Office Project Professional 2007
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
Microsoft Office Project Web Access
Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007
Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Web Access
Obviously, you'll need to check out carefully which one is most suited to your needs and budget.
The first is what normal people running the program on their own PC will need to use. The others are for businesses large and small.
New features included in the standard version include:
Background Cell Highlighting
Change Highlighting
Cost Resources
Desktop Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Cube
Multiple Level Undo
Task Drivers pane
Budget Tracking
Visual Reports
Whether you want to get Microsoft Project or not, or upgrade or not, depends a lot on your needs. But if you are a project manager you need to look out how it can help you better run your projects on time and under budget.
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project
Notes on outsourcing of customer service
For those of you concerned about the outsourcing of customer service to reps living in India, I have good news from a "secret" source. Dell Computer is concerned about how using customer service reps in India is affecting their reputation. They plan to start moving their customer service operations back to North America.
I rarely watch TV, but on Thanksgiving I did see some, and couldn't be notice during a commercial for Gateway Computers that they used "North American based customer service" as a benefit or selling point. Maybe that affected Dell's decision.
Of course, this is not to knock Indian customer service reps. They could not do worse than the American techie I had a few years ago who worked for Microsoft. He refused to read or understand what I wrote to him in my emails, just scanned them for keywords and sent back canned replies that didn't address MY problem. I finally got satisfaction from a supervisor.
My cousin told me that he had a quite positive experience with an Indian woman -- "Grace" -- when he needed help with a wireless router for his home network. It took an hour and a half, but they finally got it working. He said that she knew what she was doing and was very patient. There were only a few times when he didn't understand her due to her accent and she didn't understand him due to him using some slang.
The latest page added to my site is:
Knoppix for Not Yet Techies
Computer Careers
Computer Careers
