A dodgy specification combined with a fixed price is every project managers worst nightmare, yet despite us all being in agreement on this there is still often a huge gapm between a projects needs and the assigned budget/resource.

Risk is the issue with this type of project, and more importantly who the risk lies with. In fixed price it is the supplier, and in T&M it is the customer, but whoever is responsible for the risk the most common risk is that of running over, and someone must take the hit on any lost time, funds or resource.

In the fixed price scenario, theoretically the supplier would be happy to shoulder the risk as it is he (or she) who has set the timeline and decided on the price. If it comes in early they make a profit and if it comes in late they are usually covered by the extra they put in the estimate for accepting the project on a fixed price contract. Everybody ends up satisfied, except for in cases where the project comes in very late, taking the profit and contingency with it, but surely that’s the suppliers own fault anyway- or is it?

In most cases it is unlikely that the supplier has had compete say over the cost and timescales as it is a very naive customer who doesn’t negotiate the estimates they are given. And of course suppliers are aware of this, and know that if they don’t come to an agreement with the client there are plenty of competitors willing to. This leads to them accepting fixed price projects scoped with very little margin for movement, which is definitely a risk.
Even when the deficit is entirely the fault of the supplier, they still need to stay in business and running unprofitable projects is not the way to do it! So to overcome this supplier’s will often scale back the project and under deliver, then hit back with the dreaded “change request”- and once you’re into this territory, then no one wins!

Assessing what the initial needs were/are rather than focusing on how to go about achieving them or what it will cost, is one way out of this scenario. By taking this view you are able to assess the gap between what is required and what can actually be done.

This gap can be reduced or at least handled early on in a project if a Project Manager makes sure the customer can see what they will actually get as soon as possible. By showing a customer small sections of work as they are completed, the deficit between what they want and what they will get is addresses more quickly and therefore overcome in a more timely fashion.

We call this “Minding the Gap” and it takes a skilled project manager to employ this alone. By implementing strong project management software they can give themselves a helping hand, as bugs, issues and milestones are flagged automatically allowing them to be responsive and efficient

Want to find out more about project management software, then visit Countersoft’s site to see howagile project management can help you in your projects.

If you currently suscribe to satellite TV then you may like many other people – struggling with the monthly payments that your subscription costs you.

In the past people have looked for ways around paying these monthly bills – with some legal and some not so legal methods being used.

Well you’ll be happy to know that there are now other options that allow you watch thousands of TV channels without having to pay any ongoing monthly fees.

All you need to do now is to download a simple piece of software, install it on your computer and you can access satelittle TV from your PC.

You can now get access to thousands of TV channels directly on your computer, whether its at home or away with you on a trip.

You can watch TV channels from both your own country, and others around the world which is perfect if you are an expat living in another country.

This is a great way for you to watch your favourite sports from all over the world from the comfort of your own home.

So what does this involve?

There’s not much to it. You start off by downloading a piece of software from someone with a good reputation, follow their installation instructions and you’re all set.

You’ll have instant access to over 3,000 channels with all the major categories of TV show and movie being covered.

You can watch movies, sports, comedy shows or drama, wildlife documentaries or kids shows.

And the great thing is that your choices are much wider than with traditional satellite because the Internet opens up all countries to you.

All you need is an Internet connection and a half decent computer and you can get started straight away.

So all you need to do is buy the software from someone reputable – and the great thing is the cost is generally lower than the fee you pay in a single month on a satellite plan.

One thing I would always look for in these software suppliers is a money back guarantee. If they believe in their product, and know that it works they should have no trouble offering you this.

Once you’ve got your software you won’t need to pay anything again…you’ll have more TV channels then you’ll know what to do with.

Follow the links here to find out how you are able to watch TV on your PC without ever being forced to pay monthly fees again. TV on your PC

So many companies dream of going public both as a growth and exit strategy but unfortunately few succeed with this process. The third party audit, sponsoring of the S1 and 211 by a market maker and SEC comments stage is just one of the obstacles involved with taking a company public. The attempt at going public and actually achieving a symbol are two entirely different things and if you are lucky enough to achieve a symbol there’s a completely separate area of expertise needed to keep your stock trading and to preserve a company’s longevity in the marketplace.

Here are some things you need to keep in mind when gearing up to take your company public. Forget everything that you’ve read and heard and pay attention to what you’re about to read because this is the straight forward, objective reality of the process. First, do not hire an attorney to take you public as they will take you on a long drawn out process to get as many billable hours as possible, instead, hire a consulting firm whose sole business model is to take companies public and take advantage of the relationships that they have with attorneys. This is the first rule: hire a consulting firm that offers a complete A to Z turn-key solution for taking a company through the process of going public, achieving a symbol and preserving the trade with a solid, ongoing post public investor relations strategy.

Next, when you’ve decided on a consulting firm evaluate their team, don’t ask for references to call to research their track record, better yet, ask for symbols of previous clients and links to the Edgar database to check out current deals in the comments stage. The proof is in the empirical track record, not potentially fraudulent phone references that are easily engineered and BS.

Now look at their team. Make sure that the consulting group has a solid legal team, market makers, investor relations team, auditing group and someone well versed in the comments stage response as this can be one of the major hang-ups in achieving your symbol in a timely manner. Also, most important, they absolutely MUST have a solid group of investors to fund the process for equity and to sell their shares into the marketplace post public to create a market for your stock as well as a network of market makers familiar with your deal to piggyback off of the sponsoring market maker’s 211.

About one month away from symbol achievement you’ll want to meet with your consultants to get a solid IR strategy together for a big offering dbut. You will want to set up a strategy for 30 day IR intensives every other month with general corporate publicity strategies in between. I suggest changing your IR firm each quarter to keep it fresh and open up your trade to a new network of investors.

One special note to consider is that when you are raising your initial round of capital from seed investors, the fastest way to do this is to have a fist full of contracts and purchase orders in hand to strengthen your position and publicize this reality with an arsenal of press releases. Its 100 times easier to raise capital if you are showing seed investors a handful of ’soon to be’ cash than to solicit them empty handed.

Obviously there are a multitude of other issues that you need to take into consideration when going public so find a consulting firm that can help you make it happen. Don’t try to venture out into these waters on your own as you’ll be diving into shark infested waters and you’ll almost certainly fail.

For Corporate Consulting or Invest Seed Capital In Pre-IPO Companies, call Princeton Corporate Solutions at 267-233-0183Take Your Company Public the easy way!