ColoradoIndependents News

HOMETOWN POLITICS
I can’t believe it’s 2003 already. I’ve had my head buried in political action in my hometown Manitou Springs. I was in charge of creating and maintaining our local property rights website. Check it out at www.manitousprings.com if you are bored. Look for the property rights link on the home page. Read the Cars and Dogs article for a laugh.

.NET PROGRAMMING MORE MAINSTREAM?
Last year at this time I was doing marketing and wrote a newsletter about it. I’m still working a few projects from the networking effect of that. This year I’ve been polishing my technical skills – mainly .NET and specifically ASP.NET. .NET is starting to take off and in fact the Projux product discussed below is written in it.

I’m not sure what to think about .NET. It’s definitely cool for those of us who have been VB/ASP programmers for a while but I fear it will drive the division between the Linux/Windows camps further apart. Someone claiming to be an expert in both Linux and Windows programming is going to be treated with suspicion because there is just so much to know about each to be effective.

That has less to do with the programming camp you are in than the fact we are trying to do so much more with programming in general. The latest version of .NET attempts to target “write once” programming to not only classic client forms and internet browsers, but to any number of devices such as cell phones, pocket PCs, eBooks, and so on.

You’d think with all that activity there’d be a ton of work out there for all skill sets but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Part of the problem is that the devices and concepts are still infiltrating non-geek households and so demand is still lagging.

CI WEBSITE
The Colorado Independents website is swimming along and you might have noticed we’ve reached 280 signed up profiles. That’s a lot of good independent talent in Colorado and I hope some of you have been finding each other, or at least checking out each other’s websites via the simple search tool.

We’ve added a few new links on the General Links page, in the Out Of State section. We need a good link check session though as I’ve been coming across several broken ones as sites shut down without telling anyone.

SCARY GOOGLE TRICK
Since I’m rambling let me clue you in on a scary Google trick. Go to www.google.com and type in your phone number in quotes, e.g., “719 442 0926”. Now click on one of the Maps links at the top of the page. You are here. It doesn’t work with all phone numbers but most - handy but unsettling.

OUR LATEST GUEST ARTICLE
Below is a guest article by Paul Childs concerning an online invoicing tool he’s been working with. It seemed pretty neat to me. I’m going to give it a drive on my next small project and see how I like it.

Good luck to you all in the New Year.

Clint Lewis
ColoradoIndependents Editor

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Guest Article by Paul Childs
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A Solution to Invoicing Hell

You all must know that dreaded day at the end of the month when it is invoicing time. I used to waste at least half a day every month chasing people on my projects for their timesheets or invoices and digging them out of my emails. Then I’d have to key the information into my billing spreadsheets, allocate time to the right line items, and then generate invoices. What a grind!

Awhile back I started using a product called Projux (www.projux.com) that is written in Vancouver, British Columbia. The web-based tool allows me to set up my projects and structure them according to deliverable or how I want to invoice the client. I negotiate and allocate each task to my team using their e-mail addresses. Team members are automatically notified of (my version) of the agreed tasks, including deadlines, scope and budget, and they get to see their assigned tasks when they log into the system.

Time and expense entry is done on-line which is great because it can be done anywhere you can get to a browser. Invoice generation is easy as they can be generated at any level in the project hierarchy and all the time and expenses are pulled in from the lower levels.

When a client insists on regular update reports I put them on the system so they can see progress on any of the projects against the budget. Using the Projux tool, the client and I can manage change control quite easily. Changes to budget, tasks, or scope on a project can be accomplished on line -- an electronic version of client sign off. Projux supports electronic submission of invoices, and helps manage the approval process. No more “I’m sorry I didn’t get your invoice”!!

So what does it cost? A single Projux license starts at $15 per person per month with up to 15% discount if you buy a yearly package, and further discounts if you sign up other people. If it saves you half a day per month, the product seems worth the price to me. The Projux website offers a free trial period so you can check it out for yourself.

Paul Childs - Planetworks Consulting (www.planetworks.ca)

As well as being an independent IT consultant, Paul is the Marketing Director for Projux, and a long time Projux user.