Was at the OPN ISV forum at the ballroom of Taj Coromandel, yesterday. The forum was hosted by Oracle, Sun and AMD. Lot of presentations on why one should partner with Oracle and the benefits of OPN. For one, I finally got a clear picture of "GRID COMPUTING" that Oracle talks about when it markets 10g. Looking forward to the 10g workshop and 3 day ISV tech forum scheduled for mid Jan and March next year.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Minimum "New Work" ... SurvivalSkills2005
Tom Peters author of "Liberation Management", "In Pusuit of WOW" etc offers his Survival Kit for 2005.
Friday, December 17, 2004
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Business Proposals
Every time I read a business proposal to a potential client I am amazed by the amount of overhead (bullshit) we add in the document - A lot of stuff about your company's history (Nobody cares), the clients history etc. I am a little taken aback by the client's history part, I wonder which joker would want to tell a client about themselves. I dont know who started this practice but its definitely funny. Some really very cautious sales execs put in a lot of riders to cover their backsides. So essentially you'll end up with a proposal that will tell you a lot about what you will not do for your client rather than what you will do.
Now that brings us to what should be contained in a proposal. For one I believe that you should assess what the client wants to accomplish. It may be business targets like - increase customer base, improve turn around time of tele callers, increase the number of credit worthy customers etc etc.
You should highlight in your proposal that you have understood this busiess need; The solution you propose to achieve this; The mechanism you'll implement to facilitate achieving this business objective and the infrastructure you have to support this implementation. PERIOD. Nothing more nothing less. All this in about 10 - 12 pages including all title, revision history and everything else that your quality procedures require. Every other legal clause can be saved for the contract.
My recommendation would be to have the following contents in your proposal.
1. Situation Summary
2. Objectives
3. Value provided by you
4. Measure of Success - How will you measure that the objectives have been met
5. Methodology
6. Scope and Timelines
7. Critical Success Factors - A disguised way of highlighting accountabilities of the client
8. Compensation
Never title your proposal "Proposal"! Write a title that states the benefit to the client. E.g. "Increasing number of positive prospects", Highlight the key points using bullets or by emphasing text, eliminate jargon and quantify your benefits. You are sure to strike GOLD.
Now that brings us to what should be contained in a proposal. For one I believe that you should assess what the client wants to accomplish. It may be business targets like - increase customer base, improve turn around time of tele callers, increase the number of credit worthy customers etc etc.
You should highlight in your proposal that you have understood this busiess need; The solution you propose to achieve this; The mechanism you'll implement to facilitate achieving this business objective and the infrastructure you have to support this implementation. PERIOD. Nothing more nothing less. All this in about 10 - 12 pages including all title, revision history and everything else that your quality procedures require. Every other legal clause can be saved for the contract.
My recommendation would be to have the following contents in your proposal.
1. Situation Summary
2. Objectives
3. Value provided by you
4. Measure of Success - How will you measure that the objectives have been met
5. Methodology
6. Scope and Timelines
7. Critical Success Factors - A disguised way of highlighting accountabilities of the client
8. Compensation
Never title your proposal "Proposal"! Write a title that states the benefit to the client. E.g. "Increasing number of positive prospects", Highlight the key points using bullets or by emphasing text, eliminate jargon and quantify your benefits. You are sure to strike GOLD.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Getting Things Done
Been practising the art of "Getting things done" (David Allen). See my earlier post on the book. Over the last two weeks I've found that I am able to do a lot more, close the open loops and never visit them again. Did the weekly review second week in a row. Decisions are quicker and made with greater confidence. Projects move forward. Head is clear. No lapses in my Yoga routine.... All this without implementing the "Tickler File" system, not having an industrial strength stapler and an electronic labler. Looking forward to acquiring this GTD accoutrements! Wonder what else is in store for me.
My Yahoo!
If you havent seen the latest My Yahoo then I suggest that you rush to the portal and have a dekko. Those of you who already use the service you'll be in for some pleasant surprise. There are some really cool features.
For one My Yahoo now allows you to add content syndicated from other sources on the web. It allows you to create multiple pages instead of one so that you can add content based on the context - Professional, Personal etc. You can change the background theme if you wish. You can add all of Yahoo's services - mail, briefcase etc as content. Combine this with Yahoo Geocities for your personal home page. Now this is what I call great personalisation.
For one My Yahoo now allows you to add content syndicated from other sources on the web. It allows you to create multiple pages instead of one so that you can add content based on the context - Professional, Personal etc. You can change the background theme if you wish. You can add all of Yahoo's services - mail, briefcase etc as content. Combine this with Yahoo Geocities for your personal home page. Now this is what I call great personalisation.
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