Today's project

This afternoon I went to a local recruitment firm and showed the management team of 7 people what they could be doing with Outlook and Exchange. They have Office 2007.

I started by asking them what they think Outlook is/can do.

We also discussed the tools they use. What came out was that they have 11 separate unconnected systems doing a little something. A little something that was important at the time, but their approach of getting another system and another system and another system each time there was a new need has led them to a HUGE mess.

Now they have an accounting package, a CRM system, a wall planner, numerous Excel spreadsheets doing anything from storing who got a Christmas card from them last year to their staff's birthdays, post it notes, to do lists on paper, a paper diary, corporate calendars in Outlook, Tasks in Outlook, Contacts in Outlook. I'm sure you get the picture by now. It's a mess.

It's a mess because the same data is often in more than one place. One set of data is up to date or partially up to date and another set has the rest of the data up to date. In some cases no one knows which data is up to date if any.

I like helping organisations fix this type of mess! Does that make me a glutton for punishment? No. But I tell you, I am soooooo enthusiastically welcomed when we uncover the potential risks and time wastages and then work to solutions for clients like this.

Next week I start working on solutions with them. Now that will be rewarding - and I even get paid to do it!