IN THIS ISSUE
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Getting Started: TimeWise Tutorial Now Available
Management Tip: Receiving Job Materials Via Email
Technical Tip: Automatic Patch Notification
You Asked Us: What's Different Between TimeWise and TimeWise Light?
How To Contact Us
GETTING STARTED:
TIMEWISE TUTORIAL NOW AVAILABLE
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Many people asked us to make it easier to get to know TimeWise. We've
listened: TimeWise and TimeWise Light now include beginner's tutorials
that help new and existing users introduce themselves to TimeWise features.
To view the tutorial, simply download any version of TimeWise or TimeWise Light from our web site at http://www.timewise.net . The tutorial starts automatically the first time you use TimeWise. After that, you can turn on the Tutorial Mode with the new command, Tutorial Mode On, located on the Help menu at anytime. As you work, TimeWise explains basic commands as you select them.
We'd like to know what you think of the tutorial. If you have any suggestions
on how we can improve it, please email info@timewise.net .
MANAGEMENT TIP:
RECEIVING JOB MATERIALS VIA EMAIL
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Many clients are sending in job materials via email, and why not? It
saves them time and money. However, if not properly managed it can also
cause you a lot of hassle: in the past, everything came in the front door
and so was easily signed for and routed to the proper person in your organization.
If the incoming material was on electronic media, experienced clients would
typically send along a paper hard copy, to confirm exactly what everyone
thinks is on the disk.
With email, clients will tend to send job materials directly to whomever they work most closely within your organization (including those who happen to be camping in Zanzibar for two weeks). Since sending along a hard copy requires an extra delivery, they are unlikely to do so. And the receiving computer might not be the right one to convert attachments. Suddenly, email doesn't seem so clever. So what can you do to tame this tiger?
Here are our suggestions to help make receiving job materials via email reliable and painless:
Establish an email account specifically for job materials, named something like "inbasket@ourcompany.com". Have a computer available to production staff check this address regularly for incoming mail.
Train all of your staff to encourage clients to send incoming job materials to the in basket address. To remind clients, add a message to the signature of everyone's outgoing email reminding people to "Please send all job materials to inbasket@ourcompany.com".
Next, set up the filtering on the email software so that whenever a message arrives, a copy is automatically forwarded to the person who normally traffics the packages that come in the front door. This way, that person will know right away that material has arrived and can deal with it accordingly.
To encourage clients to send a hard copy, set up the filtering rules on the in basket's email software to automatically respond to incoming messages with a message that reassures clients that their message has been received and to remind them of the importance of faxing or couriering a hard copy of the job material to ensure the quality of their job.
Set up the in baskets's email software so that attachments are stored in a shared folder on a network server that preferably everyone in the organization can get to. This will allow the person who is assigned to work on the incoming material to retrieve it from a shortcut or alias on their desktop.
When clients do occasionally send job materials directly to another address, simply forward the message to the in basket. It is also wise to keep a central registry of everyone's passwords, so important messages can be retrieved by someone else should the recipient be out of the office or on vacation. Finally, if you use more than one computer platform in your office, use an email package that handles cross-platform attachments well (such as Eudora Pro), so that attachments received on one platform can be forwarded to another without corruption.
Have you got a management problem you would like advice on? Email your question
to info@timewise.net and we'll do our best to supply an answer. The answer may
also appear in a future bulletin.
TECHNICAL TIP:
AUTOMATIC PATCH NOTIFICATION
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Would you like to automatically know when a new maintenance release
of TimeWise is available from our Web site? If so, you can now register
for automatic notification of new contact on our patch page by clicking
a button on the page at patch.htm . Then, every
time a new free patch is posted on our Web site, you will be notified via
email.
YOU ASKED US:
WHAT'S DIFFERENT BETWEEN TIMEWISE AND TIMEWISE LIGHT?
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Question: Jason Stark of St. Louis, Missouri asks "What's the difference
between TimeWise and TimeWise Light?"
Answer: In short, TimeWise Light shareware is easier to learn and is
designed for smaller organizations, while TimeWise does more things for
more people and is not shareware. To make it easy for everyone to be aware
of the differences between the two products, we have put an explanatory
table on the TimeWise web site at http://www.davidberman.com/timewise/compare.htm .
HOW TO CONTACT US
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You can send mail to "It's About TimeWise" at editor @timewise.net .
To get more information or to download shareware, free 30-day trials, patches for registered users, or to inquire about redistributing TimeWise shareware or trial editions, visit the TimeWise Web site at http://www.timewise.net or email info@timewise.net .
Or write us at:
David Berman Developments Inc.
283 Ferndale Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1Z 6P9
Or fax: +1 613-482-4777
Or telephone our sales hotline: 800-665-1809 (North America)
Or email: info@timewise.net
ABOUT "It's About TimeWise"
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"It's About TimeWise" is a free bulletin to help TimeWise users and
potential users keep planning success into every job. Copyright 1997 David
Berman Developments Inc. This information may be freely distributed, in
its complete and original form only. TimeWise and its logos are trademarks
of David Berman Developments Inc. All other trademarks are the properties
of their respective owners.