I ran into a set back in the Website Upgrade about a week ago.  I was working to include a dynamic css menu system that would automatically update every time I added a page into my content management system.

I compared several different tools and pulled the trigger on CSS Menu Writer a Dreamweaver extension.

To make a long story short, the software did not do what I expected nor did it do much of anything the way I expected it to do it!

That said after essentially walking through one user issue after the next all week long, by the end of the week, I had figured out how the tool actually works, and I had conceived a way to achieve my goal anyway, even though the software isn’t actually designed to make things such as I wanted, easy.

Fortunately, I have some strengths in working with content management systems and databases, and so I was able to compensate for the software programs shortcomings and still use some of its capability to achieve the same result.  So now, I am back off to the races to work to finish migrating the site over into the new system and make up for the week I lost with the wisdom that I gained.

One of my primary goals is to have the new site up and tuned heavily before August when I will fly out to LA and Vegas for back to back conventions.  By the time those events come around, I want to insure that my website is reliable and make the least of my worries be the search for some good hotel deals.

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Over the last six months I have had a crash course in marketing utilizing direct marketing lists.  During that time, I have worked with a number of providers of specialized direct marketing services.  I have seen some very good marketing practices and services and I have seen some services that were not worth paying for.

As I proceed into 2008, my own company will be focusing even more on this market.  It is currently going through a rapid upheaval as many direct marketing services fail and as many others consolidate with each other.

It has been my experience that if a company is looking to buy mailing list leads they need to do their homework and focus on companies that provide both consulting services and highly specialized metric analysis.  It is also imperative that the data be timely. 

Too many companies sell old information that is not worth the email it is attached to or the CD that it is stored on.

But possibly the most important aspect of working with these types of leads is to insure that the company buying the information has the technical means to work with the data and close deals or complete transactions with the opportunity they are purchasing.  If a company does not have this technical means to work with the data then just purchasing a cheap list is a waste of money.

A list is not needed, a full fledge consulting solution is required.  This will mean that shopping around list prices will be nothing more than a comparison of apples to oranges.  When consulting solutions are needed, the only way to garnish results is to test the service provider and grow into the relationship preferably in a way that generates results with the help of the consultants, but also trains the purchasing companies people in how to achieve the same results and data analysis and management expertise.

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I worked as a Finance Manager for a number of years. Over that time I oversaw a number of complex collections groups and at times we outsourced our collections to factoring companies.

There is a right time and a wrong time for a company to factor their invoices through a Factoring Service. The decision should not be made lightly but can be advantageous both for your company’s bottom line but also for the credit of your customers. Factoring invoices and outsourcing the collection on those invoices to a company specializing in those services can save you time and money and overhead. Your invoices are not something that can just be handed off and forgotten about soon after. It takes a good amount of time to properly plan the transition and plan the management of the new relationship with your future factoring partner. Any company that does their homework in these two areas, can definitely save money, save overhead, offer their customers lower prices and help their customers build out better credit. Factoring prices are reasonable and can be comparative to the costs that many companies reserve for bad debt and pay for inhouse collections. However, if a company attempts to hand over the invoices and ignore the partnership no savings will be found. To put it a different way, you do not want to outsource a broken inhouse process. Fix your culture and your process first, and then factoring can be a useful service.

Note. For anyone considering factoring services, I have offered my consulting services in this area since 2005.

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As I mentioned recently I have recently investigated the potential to link QuickBase into Microsoft Project. The ability is there today. A user can download a desktop application that serves as the tool that downloads the relevant data from QuickBase and pipes it into Project. You can then work on it in Project and later push it back up to QuickBase.

Via this tool, It should be theoretically possible to create a link from QuickBase to the Desktop Ap to Microsoft Project and then to Mindjet’s MindManager and all the way back again.

Given Mindjet’s past work with an accelerator that works with Salesforce.com I recommended that QuickBase should consider exploring contact with MindJet to build out a similar accelerator there as well. QuickBase would have a greater advantage over Salesforce.com in this potential future. QuickBase provides CRM like Salesforce.com but it also provide Project Management and general Database abilities (plus online access in real time to that Database!).

So in theory an Accelerator could enable QuickBase to become the online Database element for MindManager that could enable realtime sharing of MindMaps across Networks!

Now they just need to meet each other and collaborate.

“Intuit let me introduce you to Mindjet.”

“Mindjet let me introduce you to Intuit.”

Sounds like a joint venture made in heaven.

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As I continue to review QuickBase from Intuit, I learned today that this Online Web Database does have a relatively New ODBC connectivity option.

In fact QuickBase has created a useful video that walks through several examples of using the ODBC connector to link both spreadsheets and SQL Server 2005 into QuickBase.

I’m interested personally in the connectivity options for several reasons.

1. I want to be able to link QuickBase information into Access for Adhoc Analyis offline
2. I am also looking for the ability to push or pull QuickBase data to a Data Cube, Data Warehouse or to an OLAP(I know slightly redundant.)

I will continue to explore these options and see what I can determine. . . .

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